That One CrazyAss Bastard
by MythicDawn12
Summary: What if James didn't decide to go to Vault 101 after his wifes death? What if his son grew up in a harsh world instead of a pampered lazy one? The story of how a boy grew up in the Wasteland to become...a wise-cracking asshole. With a gun. That he shoots.
1. A Martyr?

"Why is it every beautiful day I begin to have is interrupted?" Hits asked the girl in the red jumpsuit.

The glass bottle on the shelf next to him exploded.

Red looked back at him, an incredulous expression on her face.

Hits frowned.

"I mean, I start out my day with a pleasant walk right? Wake up…and take a stroll, hunt a little yah know what I mean?" he asked her, looking annoyed.

The wooden plank next to him dissolved into splinters with a loud crack.

He looked at the remains with a bored expression and sighed. Red looked at it fearfully.

"They're getting closer Hits," she said, a slight tremor evident in her voice.

"Hey!" yelled Flash, "What the hell are we supposed to do? I can't peg these bastards from here with just a pistol!" he exclaimed angrily, and the yelped as a bullet buried itself into the sandbag behind him. "Damnit Hits! You were supposed to help us, not get us all killed!" he screamed. He poked his head up again, squeezed off two rounds and then ducked back behind cover.

"Don't freak out man, I'm on it." Hits yelled back.

Then he turned around to continue his conversation.

"So I'm walking around right? The morning was not too hot, not too cold, just perfect."

He paused when another volley of bullets passed over.

"And then I see your town. What the hell was I thinking coming here? This is what I was thinking: Hey, a town! Maybe there are some hot girls! The Wasteland doesn't have many of those."

He paused again at the sound of a scream from the slavers and gave a thumbs up to the surprised Dusty, who managed to hit someone. Hits flipped a lock of his long black hair out of his eyes.

"So I walk into town and…well, I guess you know the story from there." He finished as Red looked up at him, annoyed he was still talking.

"Aren't you supposed to be killing them?!" she suddenly exploded. "Yes, I'm sorry we brought you into this mess, but you know we need your help."

She pleaded with him as her hands kept working on the wounded Timebomb. Hits frowned again.

"Fine, but you owe me." He said with a disgruntled air.

"We'll give you anything we want, that we have of course." She said turning back to heal Timebomb. "I'm holding you to that!" Hits said as his mood lightened up. Red and Bittercup were very attractive, he hoped Red would keep her word. 

_Cause I need to get laid_, he thought.

He reached into his pack and pulled out three frag grenades, thought better of it, and put them back. He looked around. He was in the ruins of some old building and Red was crouching next to him. Currently, she was staunching the flowing blood from Timebombs abdomen. She said he was going to live, but Timebomb didn't look so good. To his left, Shorty and Pappy were doing the same as Flash. Otherwise known as being completely useless. Bittercup was safe and sound in a building away from combat, being a hindrance to the Bigtown dwellers survival. If she was out here, everyone would have to watch out for her, better she stay away.

He glanced outside again. He took it all in. The slavers locations were scattered about the random shacks in the vicinity.

One was stupid enough to be standing out in the open and firing. Or maybe he wasn't so stupid considering how shoddy the Big Town residents aiming were. 

_This is pointless_, he thought.

"Flash! Pappy! Kimba! Shorty! Dusty! Cease fire!" he commanded.

They all looked at him with surprise and rebellion, but obeyed under his serious glare.

"Red" he said to her, "Once these guys are dead, you and Bittercup owe me some serious screwing." He said and grinned at her shocked and blushing features.

"Do you give up?" came a call from the other side of the battlefield. "Yeah!" Hits responded. "We'll give one of us up if you leave."

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. He couldn't be thinking about giving one of them up! "What are you doing?!" Red hissed at him looking pissed. Flash slowly lowered his pistol muzzle toward Hits. "If you're thinking about giving one of us up, then you've made a big mistake man." Flash whispered.

Hits just smiled.

"Yo!" he cried out again, "you want one of us or not?"

He didn't hear anything after that, but he knew they were thinking about it. "It's a pretty good deal considering!" Hits yelled again, "or we could just kill each other. Come on, we give you someone, then you go home happy."

Silence again, then, "Deal! Send your person out, unarmed!"

Hits looked at Flash, whose hands holding the pistol were visibly shaking. "Calm down Flash" Hits said, "All of you will be fine." He then stood up, dropped his pistol and pack, and walked out the door.


	2. A bit o Guns

**Here's the second chapter everyone. ****We get a little more info on our hero. ****These few beggining chapters are kind of a prologue, there is MUCH more to come. **

**Please, please, please review. I only updated because I got a request to, in a review. I like positives. Thank you and enjoy!**

**I don't own Fallout blah, blah, blah, read it. **

Five Hours Ago

The morning was not too hot, not too cold.

In fact, it was just perfect.

The birds would have been singing a glorious chorus to the rising sun. Light would have broken the tree line and created a haze that covered the countryside in a comfortable chill. The horizon would have been promising a cloudless day.

If the horizon wasn't pock-marked with craters. If almost one hundred percent of the avian population on Earth wasn't incinerated or mutated. If the toxic haze of the morning didn't hang over burnt skeletons of trees over mile upon mile of barren wasteland.

All the horizon promised was a day filled with eager survival.

But no hulking deathclaws stalked through the valley. Packs of vicious dogs were far elsewhere today. And there wasn't a raider in site. No trouble, no worries.

At least that's what Hits tried to tell himself. He reclined on an old folding chair on the side of a cliff 234 feet off the ground, sipping on a bottle of Nuka-Cola. He wore grimy leather boots, a worn pair of blue jeans (made by a good friend in Rivet City), and a white stitched tank top to show off his cut muscles. He was tanned, with matted black hair down to his shoulders, and of course wore a pre-war pair of black aviators to shade his eyes.

Hits had a thing for looking cool.

"…AND our morning starts off with a crrraazzzyy super-mutant attack on the station, successfully thwarted by the amazingly bad-ass Brotherhood of Steel! A successful counter-attack left us with absolutely NO casualties and those SM sonofabitches seriously hurting! To all my Wasteland listeners, I hope your morning is as fun as ours has been. And now we go to-CLICK"

An audible click was heard as Hits' finger prodded the OFF switch of his PIP-boy 3000.

He sighed, slipped his PIP-Boy back into his shoulder-pack and set it on the ground. Then he stretched and yawned extravagantly, stood up and admired the view of the wasteland he was getting. And damn was it nice.

He had retreated to his safe house here after a huge fiasco over at Megaton. Moriarty didn't take too kindly to the fact that Nova, one of his prostitutes and main source of income, proclaimed love for Hits and refused to work for Moriarty anymore.

It was at this point when Nova sat on Hits' lap and Hits simply shrugged at Moriarty.

It was at this point when Moriarty pulled out his custom 12-gauge sawed off shotgun and threatened to blow Hits' head off with it.

And it was at THIS point when Hits somehow got Moriarty to turn his back, pantsed him, and pushed him down a short flight of stairs.

Long story short, Hits had to get out of town for a couple of days, and decided to take a little vacation at the same time.

_Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't have stolen those caps while he was down, _he thought as he watched the sunrise.

"Time for breakfast!" he shouted aloud to no one in particular. He then picked up his hunting rifle, switched his PIP-Boy to a song he downloaded from an old computer (Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant), and started climbing down the cliff face.

A few minutes later he was strolling through the valley with his pack and rifle slung over his shoulder, and his keen eyes looking for something to shoot. He had hoped he would see some mole rats right away. The disgusting rodents were usually everywhere.

He turned his PIP-Boys volume louder and hoped Eddy Grant would draw him some attention. Unfortunately or fortunately, it did.

"Who the fuck is playing music Andy?! I swear to God if someone has been holding a portable radio out on us I'm going to fucking KILL them!", came an angry shout from somewhere to Hits' right, past a large granite boulder.

Hits instantly ducked, switched off his PIP-Boy and unholstered his pistol.

"Hey, it's off now, I think someone is around. It came from behind this rock." came a low voice from the same direction.

Hits crawled quietly to the other side of the rock and risked a peek at the group from underneath. There was a large African-American, a skinny white guy with glasses but holding a huge rocket launcher. There were three asians holding submachine guns (of what make Hits couldn't tell), and a very attractive red-haired woman armed to the teeth with pistols, brass knuckles, several knives and a ripper at her side. The evil looking chainsaw shortsword lloked like it had seen some action in the last few days.

"Whoever is behind there come out with your hands up. Don't fuck with us, we will shoot you faster than you can say between-the-eyes!" the red head snarled toward the side of the rock Hits just left. Hits picked up a small pebble and tossed it over their heads and behind them, where it landed with a soft _plink._ The group instantaneously drew their weapons, turned around and fired off at the poor pebble, their backs now to him. As their barrage continued, Hits stood up, dusted himself off and calmy strode towards the red head and stood behind her.

Their 4 second assault ended and they peered around.

"You see anything?" asked the large African-American.

"We must have hit _some_thing, I unloaded a full clip" said one of the asians.

Hits pulled out his 10mm pistol and pressed the barrel to the back of the womans head. She immediately froze, and Hits smiled. He then brought his lips close to her ear and whispered , "Are you sure you don't want to fuck with me? You're pretty cute."

He could see a blush form itself on her cheeks and her sigh in defeat.

"Alright guys, turn around and put down your weapons, he's got me."

The whole group swiveled around quickly again, this time not unloading their weapons on the first thing they saw.

Hits observed them and thier shocked expressions. That's when he noticed a slave collar hanging off of the belt of the rocket launcher guy.

"You guys slavers?"

The looked at each other, then looked back and nodded.

"Sooo, you're looking for some slaves?" he asked in an almost bored conversational manner.

They nodded again.

"Would you have taken me for a slave if you could have captured me?"

They were just about to nod their heads, but their leader at gunpoint shook her head at them.

They shook their heads.

Of course Hits caught this. So they were a slave band that picked up anybody they saw. How disgusting.

"Drop your weapons please, I don't even want a chance at this getting messy."

At this point the red head ducked at an insane speed, drew a knife and turned around and tried to stab him.

He caught her wrist with the knife and spun her around holding her at gunpoint again.

He chuckled.

"Bitch please. That's happened to me so many times I've built up an immunity to surprises."

As the group dropped their various armaments he asked them if they were heading somewhere specific for slaving.

"Actually we were headed to Big Town. There was a very specific request for a, uh, Red there." came a reply from one of the asians, this one named Ralph. He was currently sitting on the ground trying to take off his special boot that shot a spray bullet everytime he stamped on it in a specific rythm.

"We weren't in any big rush though man, that's why we were tagging anybody around." said the black man who was pulling a sawed-off shotgun out of his pants leg.

"We're actually not in a big rush because Big Town is supposed to be well defended. They're supposed to have Super Mutants protecting them or something. We are a liittle intimidated." calmly explained the skinny white dude, Jimmy.

Hits pondered this information.

"How much is Red worth to you?"

"4000 caps"

"Jesus tap-dancing Christ!" Hits cried in amazement.

He had only dreamed of getting that much money for one job. He could get heeellla shit with that little fortune.

"Thats ALOT of caps, why the hell didn't you guys go for it?"

"Super Mutants!" yelled Rachel, one of the asians.

"Look babe, Super Mutants are nothing, I'll take care of them. Here's the deal I worked up. You guys give me your custom weapons and shit, and I'll help you get Red. 4000 caps is more than your stuff can work up."

"Not _that _much more" said a sour faced Elytta, the red head gang member.

"Nope. But I also have you at gunpoint, so you guys kind of have to take this deal."

The all discussed it, their weapons in a pile by Hits' feet. Then the black guy turned to him.

"Fine, you got us anyway. Deal man."


	3. And off to rescue

**Okay for some reason I keep my chapters short. I don't know why. I'm trying my hardest to make them longer. I'll just have you all know that although the chapters are short, there will be many. Or I will adapt out of this and simply make really long chapters. Enjoy...**

And that's how Hits found himself outside of a ramshackle barricade. There were only a few sandbags, empty barrels and wooden planks putting up crappy defenses around a small wooden bridge. He strolled right in, noting the abandoned buildings outside of this one well gaurded area. He also looked around wondering where the Super Mutant guards were.

"Hold it right there!"

Hits stopped and watched a man in a black leather uniform wearing a helmet with a plastic visor stand up and pull out a hunting rifle.

"Hey, what's up?"

"What business do you have here in Big Town?"

"I'm here to dispel your Super Mutant defense and kidnap one of your friends" said Hits with a cheeky grin.

The man looked at him strangely.

"Just kidding. Come on, I'm just looking around keep your pants on sir...?"

"The name is Dusty. And yeah, you can look around or whatever. Not like it matters." Dusty sat down and let out an audible groan.

"So, uh, what's going on around here?" Hits asked crossing the bridge and leaning up against a sandbag.

Dusty glared at him through his visor.

"Lets just say that anytime soon there won't be enough of us left for the mole rats. We've got super mutants attacking us, we've got slavers attacking us too now. Two of ours were taken to the super mutant base up at German Town. We're fucked." Dusty said and contiued watching the entrance to the small town.

"So...you wouldn't happen to have super mutant guards huh?"

"Are you mad? If we had super mutant muscle on our side nobody would want to waste us."

Hits thought about it. So it was super mutants and slavers attacking Big Town. Since the slavers attacked only twice before they must have come at the same time the super mutants did. It could be easily understandable that the slavers fought the super mutants over the Big Town dwellers, and the dumbass slavers thought that the super mutants were the defense.

"What are the names of the ones that were taken?"

"Red and Shorty."

"Fucking dicksqueezer!" Hits growled.

Dusty turned to him, very confused.

"It's nothing. I...uhm, have turrets."

Dusty looked at him again. "What's turrets?"

"I'll tell you later. Alright Dusty, I'm willing to help you guys out. _Maybe."_

Dusty's eyes lit up with a sudden glint of hope.

"But first you have to tell me who is here, how this shit has been happening, and what the hell you guys are doing here anyway."

**20 minutes later**

"Alright, lemme get this shit straight. So you guys are from a city of kids called Little Lamplight? And Little Lamplight kicks out anybody who turns 16 and sends them here. Telling them that Big Town is this high and mighty place where adults go to live in comfort. But, Little Lamplight kids were lying to you just to get you guys the fuck out of there. So you kids trek across the wasteland to find yourself at these shitty ruins where there's a good chance you'll either be sold as slaves or eaten by super mutant freaks."

Dusty nodded in confirmation.

"So here you are getting systematically cluster-fucked by mutants and slavers alike."

Dusty rolled his eyes and nodded again.

"Why don't you guys just leave?"

"We don't have anywhere else to go! Megaton and Rivet City won't have us-"

"Okay, I can't believe that, they're nice people." Hits replied, to defend his friends.

Dusty shook his head.

"Not to us. Sure, they'll let us stay for a bit, but they don't have enough room for us. We always get kicked out in the end and coming back here."

Hits sighed in dissapointment of the two relatively greedy cities. The citizens there always wanted more caps. Well, so did he. But he was a _little _different.

"Alright. _Anyway, _you guys were attcked yesterday and the super mutants nabbed Red and...who again?"

"Shorty."

"Riiiight, good ol' Shorty." Hits said.

"Okay, are you going to help us or not? We need your help badly, I really don't want to die." Dusty pleaded with a look of desperation.

"Yeah, yeah, I'll help your friends out" said Hits, annoyed. "where's German Town again?"

"Just to the north up the road. It's right past a destroyed highway." Dusty responded.

"Alright," Hits said with a note of boredom, "I'll be right back."

He then began to walk off.

"Wait! What's your name?"

"Hits," Hits said without looking back.


	4. Jailbait

**I almost couldn't work up the motivation to write this next chapter. Why? The lack of reviews. Please review =[**

"I hate super mutants, I hate slavers, and I hate innocent people who can't damn well take care of themselves..." Hits muttered under his breath as he hiked over the ancient asphalt of a destroyed street.

It has been five minutes since he left Big Town. The haze of the morning had completely disappeared and he had to pull some old sunblock out of his pack to avoid being burned by the morning sun. The bright sun baked the black ground so that the heat rose in waves and further cooked the annoyed young man.

It was hot. And there was no shade. And he likely had to attack a super mutant stronghold in broad daylight. While it was hot.

"Fuuuuck mee...." he growled as he stopped at a partially destroyed bridge. Beneath him lay an irradiated river, certain death for him to jump in. Or getting wet and being very uncomfortable. Either way, he had to jump an eight foot gap. So he sighed, turned around and walked back to get some space, then turned around again and sprinted toward the jump.

He jumped. And he made it. Huzzah.

He turned and spit at the gap, and then made his way to the destroyed highway he could see ahead of him.

**5 minutes later**

"Get your goddamned head down!" he screamed at a muddy-faced girl.

He grabbed her head and shoved it below a few sandbags. Right as the super mutants fired off a few rounds at her.

"Ow, what the hell?" she yelled at him.

"Ow, what the hell?" he mimicked her in a high pitched voice, "Shutup! You almost got your head blown off!" he yelled right back.

He got up and fired to keep the super mutants at bay.

Hits was currently in an old church that served as a super mutant base. He had wandered in, and once again found himself in a mess that only he could get into.

"Kill the humans!" came an inhuman growl from outside.

_No, seriously, please kill me, _sourly thought Hits.

"Oh my God they're gonna eat us!" whined the girl, tears running down her face.

"Silly, they don't eat us," Hits looked at her with a sarcastic smile, "they torture us and then rip us apart slowly. They leave the meat just because they're douchebags like that."

The girl cried harder and covered her eyes so she wouldn't have to see what happened next.

Hits rolled his eyes.

"Okay, once again, get the FUCK down!" he yelled and kicked her behind some shopping carts. He then popped his head up and fired off two 10mm rounds at a super mutants face. The beast screamed and fell, squirming on the bloody floor.

"Eat grenade assholes!" Hits yelled at them.

Hits then unhitched four grenades from his belt, and lobbed them over his makeshift barrier at the four approaching super mutants.

"Grenade!" cried one of them before Hits' world became a whole lot of heat and whistling.

**Back with the slavers**

"Hey, you think he's alright?" asked Jimmy, the black guy, "he's been gone for a while."

"Who cares?" Elytta said with a sneer, "bastard deserves to die, he took all our stuff."

"Maybe he thinks we deserve to die. After all we did let him know that we're slavers. We're the bad guys," Jimmy said and morosely stared at the ground.

"Hey, are you having second thoughts about slaving?" Elytta eyed him with a bit of anger. "You know what we do. We take the worthless pricks of the wasteland, and we turn them into something useful. The people we take in weren't even human before we got them. They're like animals. And they serve us like the brahmin. Like animals."

Jimmy slowly looked up at her, and saw the greedy look in her eyes. He wanted to kill her so badly. He wanted to end all of it, all the slaving. They were monsters, the slavers. And he was being a monster with them. But, he'd get out of it. He looked back at the ground and nodded softly. He'd get out of it.

**The super mutant church**

"Ohmygoohmygodohmygod thank you so much!" the girl squealed and hugged Hits.

"Agh! Lady you stink!" Hits said and pried her off.

He saw her hurt expression and smiled.

"But, you're very welcome. It was only the right thing to do" he said while thinking about stupid heroic crap to say.

She smiled again and Hits decided she would look pretty without the mud and blood on her face.

"Okay lady take some of this and wash yourself off," he said and pulled out some clean water and handed it to her.

She looked at the clean water in awe and looked back at him.

"Yes it's clean water and yes I'm a wasteful prick. Have a nice drink while you're at it," he said as he pulled out a pair of binoculars and started climbing a small rocky ledge.

As the wasteland captive began rinsing herself off, Hits crouched behind some rocks at the top of the ridge and looked through his cracked binoculars. He slowly looked around noting the many hills and craggy mountains in the area. he stopped when he spotted some dilapidated old cement buildings and what looked like full barbed wire fencing.

Looking a bit to the left he saw a super mutant holding a partially destroyed hunting rifle talking, well, growling, to another one.

Hits put his binoculars away and climbed back down the ridge.

"Alright are you all done?" he asked the girl as he hopped back down to firm ground and turned to face her.

The sudden change from grimy captive to young attractive beauty was disconcerting to say the least.

She was young maybe 17-20 years of age, with medium length brown hair and brown eyes, and had fair white skin. She was just a bit shorter than him and wore some raggedy cloth pants and a cloth shirt that was now torn off around her stomach.

She also had the nicest curves he'd seen since he had to skip it out of Megaton.

"Heh, you sure are easier on the eyes now." he said with a crooked smirk.

The girl blushed and quietly sipped on the clean water. She coughed a bit and then looked Hits in the eyes.

"My name is Serah. Thank you so much for saving me from the super mutants."

Then she blushed more and looked at the ground.

"I'm willing to repay you in any way you deem fit..." she said, her face unreadable.

Hits got the message and rolled his eyes. He wasn't in a jailbait mood today.

"Yeah, yeah you're welcome. No, I'm not going to ask for sex as a payment, I'm kind of busy right now."

Serah looked up at him with widened eyes. Hits guessed she'd only met the sex hungry kind of men that were quite copious these days.

"Well, if there is anything I could do for you...I mean, I owe you my life after all..."

Hits got an idea.

"Alright, I'm guessing you want to be my sex slave because you don't want me to leave you all alone in the wasteland. If I wasn't so busy today I would have totally taked you up on your offer. It's understandable. But, I've got a better idea." Hits said with a fox grin.

Serah nodded, waiting for more.

"Have you ever handled a sniper rifle...?" Hits asked.


	5. Epic

"What the hell are you going to do?"

"....Guess."

"Guess? Is this some kind of game to you?!"

"....Do you really want me to answer that?"

"...No."

Ever since getting rescued, Serah had discovered her rescuer was very different from other people. First off, he didn't either take her as a slave or demand sex as payment for saving her life. Secondly, he was the most insane son of a bitch she had ever met. Doesn't mean he wasn't kinda cute. Just completely crazy. Wait, why was she thinking he was cute?!

She shook her head to rid herself of the impure thoughts she had about him right after he rescued her from the mutants.

Hits wanted her to concentrate. She also didn't want to freaking kill him by accident!

"Okay, you're really going to need to tell me where you're going to be so that I don't shoot you while you're down there!" she hissed at him from where they were behind a granite outcropping.

"Fine, geez! It'll be big rock over there, medium rock over there. Then you hit _that _mutant." he pointed at a loitering mutant who was trying to pick at his teeth with the nails sticking out of a nasty looking club.

"Remember, head shots _only._ I want to see their brains all over the gravel so that I know it's not going to get back up and surprise me." he warned her with a stern look.

Serah nodded softly and looked through the scope on Hits' rifle to make sure it was zeroed.

"After that they're gonna know someone's out here with a rifle, that's when you move to that nose shaped boulder behind us. Remember the one I pointed out?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"After that it's going to be, sandbags, bloody sandbags, barbed wire sandbags, and lastly camping tents."

"Alright I've got it all down." she replied and checked her scope again.

"Oh, shit get down!" he whispered fiercely and then pushed her over behind a larger rock and climbed on top of her.

"What? What's going on?" she worriedly looked around.

"I thought I heard something." he said with a big grin.

"Wha..?"

She then realized that he was straddling her.

"Get the hell off of me you perv!" she angrily said and tried to slap him.

But he caught her wrist and brought his lips down to hers and passionately kissed her.

She froze up, and started to enjoy the feeling. She wondered why she got mad at him for getting on top of her.

But then he broke away.

"For good luck," he said with a wink.

He then got up to a crouch and left to kill some mutants.

**Big Town**

"Hey, Dusty!" Bittercup called as she exited an old building, "who was that guy that showed up a while ago?"

Pappy looked up at Dusty with a questioning look.

Dusty looked up at the gothic (yet beautiful) young woman from his card game with Pappy.

"Some mercenary I think. He said he'd go and rescue Red and Shorty for us."

Bittercup laughed out loud, a sour sarcastic laugh that echoed the hopelessness that pervaded the small settlement.

"He's going to die you know. With the super mutants?"

She sat down on a mealy old chair and pulled it up to the table Pappy and Dusty were sitting.

"Why bring someone else into this?" she asked him, now with all fake mirth gone from her features, "why let someone else die?"

"Who knows?" said Pappy and threw his bad hand down on the table, "he might piss off the mutants enough they come down and finally finish us off. This could be a good thing."

Dusty sighed and dropped his hand too. He was getting bored with the game anyway.

Hits was taking a while. Could Dusty have possibly sent someone to their death? No! That was silly, the man offered to do it. But Dusty didn't warn him enough...

"I don't know. I guess...he could've possibly helped us...?"

"We've got mutants on one side and slavers on the other," said Flash as he walked up, "the only thing we can do is lay low, and shoot whatever comes through that bridge." he said and patted his holstered .32 pistol with a hint of pride.

Kimba turned around from her spot on guard duty and shot Flash in the leg with her bibi gun.

"Oooooowww! Fuck! What the hell Kimba?"

"Flash, that's just a regular ol' pistol. It isn't some special shit, ok? Now shutup about it!"

Bittercup groaned and got up. She was wasting her time with them. She needed to go see if she could find materials for makeup.

**German Town Police Headquarters**

"Shitshitshitshit SHIIIIT!!!" yelled Hits as he dived behind yet another set of sandbags.

Just before another rpg was launched at the space he was 2 seconds ago.

The echo of the explosion was still ringing in his ears. Dirt and debris clouded his vision, and stuck to his sweaty skin. He felt the grit crunch in his teeth as he clenched his jaw, and the smoke stung his nose and eyes.

Serah really fucked shit up.

She missed the first freaking shot! How do you miss a super mutants face? They're like, twice the size of a regular human face.

He thought of the slavers he met today. He thought of the mirelurk he had to kill last night. He thought of his nuka-cola, shattered in his pack and making it wet and uncomfortable to walk. And lastly, he thought of his father.

Hits growled and wiggled himself to his feet.

" You're about to eat lead asswipes!" he screamed and unholstered his second 10mm pistol.

And set off at a full sprint towards the super mutants.

"Kill him!" snarled one of the yellowish green skin monstrosities.

The rpg wielding one frantically tried to shove one of the rockets into the device.

Several of them swung their clubs, hammers and nailboards and sprinted right back at Hits.

Hits blinked once and let his insticts kick in. All he could think about was how much blood he could make the mutants spill. And then everything became a little trippy.

Things slowed down. The ringing was still in his ears. He could see the dust from the recent explosion floating down from the air.

He could _see _the outline of the dust.

Step, step, jump.

The mutant swung at nailboard, just two feet ahead of him.

The super mutant was slower than Hits when he had a hangover.

He ducked, the board whistling past his head, he brought up his pistol and fired off 6 rounds into the monsters skull.

Point blank range, 6 shots in .5 seconds.

He shoved his shoulder into the mutants body sending him and the corpse flying through the air.

Slow screaming, distorted faces.

He looked to his left, still in the air. One mutant was closing in when suddenly it's head exploded inward.

He paid it no mind. It was no longer a threat.

Colliding with the mutants body when it hit the ground did not throw off his aim as he lined up a shot to the mutant with the rpg.

Yellow, yellow-green, red.

He knew there would be no more explosions as his bullets drilled into the mutants ear canal, nasal cavity, and eyeball, in that order.

Rolling off of the corpse from his impact, he twisted his foot against the gravelly earth looking for some give. He found a spot in the seconds he had and slid, firing off the last three shots he would need.

The shots were muffled to him.

_Pff, pff, pff._

One hit a mutant in the eye, two hit the other mutant. In both of its eyes.

The last mutants head exploded too.

As Hits senses returned to normal he decided he wouldn't beat the fuck out of Serah _too _bad for at least killing two of the mutants.

All Serah saw was the fastest, most brutal takedowns she had ever seen in any battle she had ever been in.

One second she was sure Hits was down for the count as an explosion hit the place she thought he was. The next he was dual-wielding pistols and sprinting, _sprinting_, towards six super mutants.

It was a good thing she wasn't surprised enough to headshot two of the mutants, but _damn._

Hits breathed slowly out his mouth, and inhaled through his nostrils. Then he looked at Serah as she got up and walked slowly toward him from where she was a good 500 ft. away.

"Serah! You fucked up damnit!" he yelled at her.

"I know! I'm so sorry! But, how the hell did you..?"

"Never mind that." he said with finality. "I'm going inside to get Red and Shorty. You back up again and shoot anything _yellow _that comes out. I don't need you hitting me or them."

Serah watched him turn and stride off in awe. She then looked at the corpses of the mutants that were alive not 47 seconds ago.

**As I was writing about Hits' ability to slow stuff down, I realized this power was like Wesleys from Wanted and the Pointmans from F.E.A.R. It is kind of different from them, and I swear I did not intend to rip it off. All will be explained later.**


	6. Boomy Is Better

_"Please..p-please don't hurt me, I swear it wasn't my fault!"_

_"Shut. Up." came the reply from the dark figure. It was drenched, water dripping noisily on the cold cement ground._

_The woman looked up at it, fear evident in her eyes._

_"Please, I'll tell you whatever you want just don't hurt me..."_

_"I'm not making promises," it hissed, it's voice sliding through her mind like a blade through a bloody carcass._

_She whimpered, and tried to crawl away backwards from it._

_Then it stepped into the small hovering light._

_"AAAAAAAAAAAEIIIIII!!!" she screamed and then it reached down and grasped her throat, and firmly clenched it, ending the annoying, grating noise._

_Her eyes widened. She couldn't tear her sight away from the abomination in front of her. _

_It slowly lifted her up, her eyes now level with its own. _

_Then it softened its grip._

_"Tell me where he is or I'll kill you."_

**German Town Police Headquarters.**

Hits crept up the ruined staircase on the outside of the cement building. He reached the top, peeked through the flimsy door and then ducked back out. He looked in again, then ducked back out. He could hear what sounded like scratching, and he saw a dark form moving around inside. He slowly slid his knife from its sheath and mentally prepared himself for an attack. He then spun and opened the door.

Serah watched him look through the door _again, _then fall backwards flailing.

She gasped and stoop up, hoping he could fight off whatever was attacking him.

But then he turned around holding a squirming radroach and grinning.

She flipped him off.

He laughed, threw the radroach off the stairs, and snuck in through the door.

**With the Slavers**

"Andy, do you think he could take care of those super mutants?" Jimmy asked the brown haired asian slaver. "I mean, he was only one guy."

"That has _all _of our weapons," Andy grumbled back. "My custom sniper rifle, my combat knife. Do you know how many mole rats I killed wit that knife?"

Jimmy braced himself for Andys ego and replied, "One hundred thirty four?"

"One hundred and thirty fucking four!" Andy bellowed. "And three raiders, and twenty wild dogs, _and _I finished off that deathclaw we had to tangle with two weeks ago. Remember that?"

Rachel sighed. "Yes we remember it. It was flailing around and trying to kill us and you jump up and stab it in the neck. We _know. _Now be quiet about it alright? We're tired of hearing about it."

"Oh, hells no I'm not going to quit talking about it. It was freakin' a-mazing, alright?" Andy said fiercely. "Better than any of you guys could do in any case."

Elytta strode up and punched him square in the face.

"SHUT THE FUCK UP!" she snarled. "You've been talking about your lucky knife every day for the past two weeks!"

Rachel sighed again, Jimmy snorted in laughter and Andy whimpered on the ground, holding his bleeding nose.

"Hey Jimmy! Could you patch up Andys nose?" black Jimmy said.

Elytta looked at the Jimmy who just spoke, to the skinny white Jimmy that unrolled some bandages and went to help Andy.

"Huh. You're both named Jimmy?" she asked.

Rachel blinked and both Jimmies looked at each other and back at them.

"Duh," they said in unison.

Rachel looked at Elytta.

"You learn something new everyday."

**German Town Inner Headquarters**

Hits stepped on the garbage that lay as if in mats all over the ground. Pre-war newspapers, plastic bags and food containers littered the cramped dark hallways and made it difficult to sneak in without drawing some unfriendly attention.

Mainly from the super mutants in the next room talking about the humans they picked up. Hits didn't bother listening to them and instead concentrated on getting to a spot where he could kill them the quickest. He didn't know how many mutants could be in the building and didn't want to alert every one of them to his presence. He was strafing the hallways and sticking to the corners furthest from the two conversing mutants when he stopped and looked at the ground, heart beating a mile a minute. He had almost stepped on a mine!

He breathed out a sigh of relief and crouched low to begin disarming the mine. Thirty seconds later it was unarmed and ready to use for his own purposes. He slipped it into his nuka-cola drenched pack and set about looking for more mines. He had an idea now.

**German Town Outskirts**

Serah watched the crumbling building from her vantage point between a big gray rock and a destroyed wall. She groaned and shifted her position on the ground so that the stones and gravel wouldnt dig into her stomach so much. Why did she agree to help a stranger anyway?

She thought back to the rescue. He kicked her and shoved her around and then told her she stank!

_Well, I did stink, and I was being an emotional wreck, _she mused.

She decided the attractive crazy guy that rescued her could help her out again in return. He may act like he was a bit of a jerk, but she knew he was a gentleman deep down.

She just hoped that the super mutants in the ancient building wouldn't get the chance to find out what he's like deep down in him.

**Back Inside...**

Hits crept down some stairs. He saw a big lumbering figure. He stabbed it repeatedly in the neck.

Then he moved down the hallway in complete darkness.

He had disarmed every mine and set them up all over the building leaving only one hallway available for escape. He decided that when the time came, sneaky and quiet was no fun compared to loud and boomy.

Like a good crazy friend of his once said, fix problem with more problem!

He crept down the hallway, sniggering to himself and almost jumped out of his skin when he heard a loud shout.

"Hey super mutant butt-head! Are yah going to eat me or not? I hope you choke on me you fuck face!" he heard a young mans voice from the next room.

Hits guessed it was Shorty since Red was a woman.

"Be...quiet..human. Or I...huuurt...youuu...," came the low, halting growl of a super mutant in response.

"Hah! You can't even talk right can you? You're just a big stupid ugly yellow ape you know that?" Shorty yelled again.

"O-ok huuummaaann...I don't..care....I kill...youuu!" the annoyed mutant bellowed.

Hits groaned in frustration, stood up and ran through the doorway.

And almost vomited from the smell. The stench crept through his nostrils and choked his throat, and he could feel the bile rising. He held his breath and looked around.

He saw raw meat of many different kinds of creatures laying in wire bags around the room. He saw human skulls among them.

He turned to his right and witnessed Shorty squirming away from a hulking mutant that was approaching him with intent to kill.

"Hey!" Hits shouted in a commanding manner.

"Whaaarg?" the super mutant turned around with the funniest looking confused expression Hits had ever seen on a mutants face.

"Step away from the kid you big stupid ugly yellow ape!" Hits laughed and fired his gun.

"You know, I'm not a kid..." Shorty protested as the beasts body slumped to the floor with four brand new holes in it.

"You sure are short enough to be one Shorty," Hits said as he ran behind Shorty and lifted him up so that he could cut away at the bonds that held him.


	7. Badass

_It trudged through the rain, it's cold bare feet stamping its dark imprint in the mud. The rain fell in sheets, ice cold and irradiated. It paid the weather no heed and continued its pace. It's mind, twisted and corrupted it was, began to wander. It wondered about the pain it felt. Yes, the pain. Where had that come from? It had come from the room. It hated the room. How did he get to the room? Then it thought of them. It hissed in anger. And then in pain. So many times. So many times it should have seen what they would do. To..to...him. Him, yes. Him, it, her, he, she, them, wire, wire, pain, light, mother, father, red, blue, green, black, father....father..them...they? The pain dulled for a moment and the memories pierced him like lances. He was...a project. That's what they said. A project. Hyper...introspective...project? It...he...did not know. He stumbled and fell crouched on one leg. His hands planted in the wet earth like a brand dug into skin. He lifted one muddy hand up and examined it. Strange. Minutes ago it was burned, irradiated to an extent his...creators would deem dangerous. Now it seemed...fixed. Normal? Where did that word come from? What was normal? He raised his head, and through his healing eyes he could see the giant cement block. A stronghold. Soon to be a mausoleum. He recognized shapes above the door. _

_"Vault-Tec," he hissed. Then the memories faded. All but the memories of the pain. All but the memories of them. And then all there was the color red. Red._

_Blood. _

_He stood and walked slowly and painfully towards the new steel door ahead of him._

**German Town Police Inner**

Hits had a lot of skirmishes in the past. He was only twenty-three and he had a kick-boxing match with four ghouls, a swan dive off of a bridge to escape stampeding brahmin and was rescued by a dog from a group of raiders. He knew what danger was about. But this was the first time he was in a building surrounded by mutants and explosives. He could certainly blame his peculiar sense of humor on the situation. He thought it would be funny if he blew up a bunch of super mutants. It wasn't his fault. Shorty didn't agree with him. The recently rescued Red didn't agree with him. But he certainly agreed with him, and that was all that mattered.

He still found the situation funny even when Shorty tripped and knocked him over. Which, of course, started the timer on the self-made detonator in Hits' pocket. He looked at Shorty with a sigh and chuckled. Right before he got loud.

"Okay guys we need to get the fuck up out of here, RIGHT NOW!" he yelled.

Red and Shorty were already running toward the exit.

"Left hallway!" he cried after them as he jumped up off the ground and followed them. He just rescued them, it wouldn't be good if they decided to blow themselves up while escaping.

When he got himself in these situations he would usually adopt one of two dispositions. The first was to giggle like mad while running and make as much noise as possible to throw all caution to the winds. Enemies in the area would usually by thrown off by this, and therefore lower their guard slightly. This gave him an advantage. One time a raider was so disconcerted that he lowered his gun to look questioningly at the possibly mad raven-haired man. The raider in question was very surprised when he found his throat torn out almost instantaneously.

Or he'd get serious and make sure everyone got out of it alive while everyone of the bad guys were either killed or captured.

But where was the fun in that?

"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!" cackled Hits as he unholstered both of his pistols and began to fire into the ceiling as he sprinted down the hallway. "Come catch me mutant biiitchesss!!!"

Needless to say, every mutant in the building was alerted to their presence. Every mutant in the building set off after the gunshots as fast as their lumbering bodies could take them.

Most of said bodies would be soon blown to bits, if not completely incinerated.

Still firing into the air and running, Hits saw that Red and Shorty had made it outside and were descending the stairs. He stopped firing and, still running towards the exit, holstered his pistols and pressed the NOW button on his detonator. He was still grinning like mad.

Red felt it before she heard it. Multiple explosions in the building piled up onto each other, shaking the earth under her feet as well as the foundations of the building. Shorty was jarred enough to fall completely and he landed with a grunt on the semi-solid ground. She bent quickly and helped him up. They were close enough that the current proximity made it feel like an earthquake. They staggered on, the pressurized explosions seeming to get closer, as if moving within the headquarters. Then the whole building cracked in several places before busting apart. Pillars were snapped and thrown outwards like used toothpicks, the cement walls crumbled into rubble. And fire resultnig from the explosions plus a leaking gas main erupted out of all the door ways from the cramped and compressed innards of the cement block. Red turned and looked fearfully out of the corner of her eye, still running from the crumbling building. She saw Hits.

"YAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!" he screamed and dived out the second story door as the doorway erupted in flame. "SUUUUUCCKKKIIIITTTT!!!!" he yelled as he fell through the air, to be cut off as he hit the ground on his shoulder, hard. The landing din't throw him off though. He miraculously rolled through it, diverting the impact. He stopped in a crouch, and flipped his black hair out of his eyes again. Then he slowly bent down and picked up his black aviators that he dropped and slipped them on. He stood up slowly and dusted himself off.

"Perfect. Fucking. Picture moment." he said.

Red and Shorty stood there slack-jawed, Red feeling kind of hot and bothered.

He calmly walked over to them from the ruins of the destroyed building, still crumbling and burning.

"Comon! We've got to get you back to your town," he breathed.

Red and Shorty could just stare in awe.

He laughed and looked towards the crags on the outskirts of the building.

"Seraaaaah! Lets go!" he yelled and waved.

Serah let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She was so worried when the building began to explode, she thought for sure everyone was dead inside. She stood up and walked towards them, swinging the sniper rifle. She smiled as she walked up. He had just dived out of an exploding building filled with mutants and he was still smiling. And what was with the glasses? She didn't think he overdid it though, he looked pretty damn cool.

"What are you laughing at?" he teased as she handed back the sniper rifle, which he swung over his back.

"Nothin," she said.

"Hey, crazy guy," Red said.

Hits turned to her and finally decided to notice her appearance.

She was african-american and she wore a red jumpsuit and a red bandana. He sarcastically wondered why her friends called her Red.

She was rather pretty too.

Serah noticed him checking her out and nudged him.

Hits looked at her sternly, a _you seriously doing this? _look.

Serah sheepishly looked away.

"Alright, what?" he asked Red.

"I heard the super mutants discussing attacking Big Town again!" she said angrily. "They already sent their team out, we have to go back!"

Hits heard this and groaned in frustration. He had long days, then he had looong days. Today qualified as the latter. Why the hell couldn't the super mutants wait until _after _he got here? Too many times this kind of bullshit had to happen. Too many times...

Hits' eye twitched, but he shook his head.

"Okay gang," he said. "We're splitting up. Serah, you take Shorty and Red to Bigtown while I go and get some weapons. I'll catch up with you in a bit."

"What?!" Serah said in surprise. "You can't just ditch us here! You're the badass who's supposed to be taking them down."

Hits ran off, sprinting past a crumbling concrete wall and out of sight.

Red looked at Serah.

"Some badass he is."


	8. Calm Before A Bullet Storm

Hits sprinted as fast as he could, his boots slapping against the rocky ground and his breath constricting his lungs. His legs were burning and the beat of his heart pulsed through him, he could feel it in his ears. Wind whistled past him and he turned his head to the side, towards Big Town. The sound of the wind abated. He growled and faced the direction he was running. The slavers were supposed to be around here, he'd explicitly told them to wait here! Sprinting towards a large boulder, he leapt upon it and jumped as high as he could. There was a brief moment when he hung in the air and he seemed to float. He got a quick surveillance of the land before crashing back down on both his legs, the impact jarring his bones. He the switched directions and continued to run.

He felt tired. Camping out in the wasteland usually involved alot of exercise due to the running from crazed monsters or humans. Hits camped the right way, and made it into a vacation. Of course this meant he slept most of the time. As a result his heart was beating painfully quickly and his breath came in short ragged gasps. He was better off than most people, being able sprint ten minutes straight, but he could usually make it another five before tiring. He breathed in extra deep and sprinted harder.

He had found Red. The 4000 cap woman. All he needed to do now is lead the slavers to Big Town, fight off the super mutants, and let them capture her. The spray-trap boots, the high powered sniper rifle, even the rapid fire rpg. Just a few more details to work out. Then all those nice weapons would be officially his.

Officially?

He blinked and slowed down a bit. The custom weapons he had nabbed off of the slavers were in a cache he had hid under some boulders nearby. Hits could even see the boulders, maybe three hundred feet away. He stopped and looked to his cache, and then to the direction of the slavers. He made his decision and ran off.

**Big Town**

"Dusty. Dusty! What the hell is that?" Kimba asked the sleepy town guard. They had been lazing around the front bridge discussing Bittercups love life before Dusty became rather quiet. Dusty waved her off. "What's what?" he asked groggily, not opening his eyes. "_That_," and Kimba pointed to a shining object over the houses ahead of them. It was bobbing and moving to the left. It looked like some kind of pipe.

"Looks like a pipe to me," Dusty said annoyed with one eye open. Dusty grew annoyed when his naps were interrupted. He was laying there peacefully on his chair and Kimba was bothering him over some metal piping? Of course his answers were going to be short and angry. "Why is it moving?" Kimba asked, a little more than worried. "Moving?!" Dusty exclaimed and jolted up out of his sleepy stupor. He didn't notice it was quickly bobbing and hovering in one direction. That _was_ cause for some worry. The pipe was moving rather quickly to the left behind the abandoned houses. It looked like it was heading towards the connecting street.

"There is something behind there holding it," Dusty said and pulled his hunting rifle off of his back. His hunting rifle was duct taped together in places, and ravaged by termites. But it usually got the job done because Pappy could keep it in workable repair. Not good, workable. "And I don't think that's a pipe. Get Flash and Pappy out here _now. _we need to take out whatever is holding that thing fast." Kimba stood up, still watching the metal object moving past the houses and she ran off to collect the others. Dusty hoped she would hurry getting Flash, he needed another gun on the front. Kimba was a pretty good shot, but she only had a BB gun, he doubted she would be of very much help when it came to a battle.

"Come _on _Bittercup! You know I'm a good guy, and there's nothing to do out here," Flash pleaded to the gothic blonde. He had been trying to sleep with Bittercup for the last couple weeks. He had become rather sexually frustrated lately seeing as there were three very attractive girls he was living around, all who were living a bored lifestyle. Red outright refused when he tried to seduce her. He had visited her clinic complaining about a "swelling". When he dropped his pants Red literally kicked his butt out her door. To everyone elses laughter and to his extreme embarassment. Kimba was adamant in that Flash was an idiot, so she wouldn't get with him. Kimba found idiocy sexually unappealing. He remembered when he tried to flirt with her, she had commented on him "stroking his gun" so much that he didn't need her to. Flash mentally winced at that. It _was _a really good burn, but he still needed to fuck something damnit! "Bittercup, seriously. I know you're still a virgin. I've only done it once, back in Little Lamplight. _Years _ago. So please. I am actually begging you." Bittercup looked at him in disgust. "First of all Flash, you have a stupid haircut. Second of all, you came to Big Town only one year ago. Third, how the hell do you know that I'm a virgin?"

Flash blinked. "Pappy told me. We were talking one day.."

"About ME?!" she practically screamed at him. She had told her old boyfriend to never tell any of his friends, especially Flash. If they all thought she had already done it with him, she figured, they'd think she was exclusive to him. Yet another good plan ruined by that idiot. She stood up to get some room to knock Flash on his butt.

Then Kimba burst through the door panting. She looked to their surprised expressions to Bittercups upraised fist.

"Sorry to interrupt whatever ass-whooping Bittercup was gonna lay down on you Flash, but we need you at the bridge."

Flash breathed in relief, gave a half-smile to Bittercup and followed Kimba as she ran back out the door.

"You and Pappy, Flash!" she yelled after him. "I'll kill you both!"

**5 minutes away from Big Town**

Andy prodded his sore nose and hissed from the stabbing pain. He wanted to scratch it so bad but it hurt too much. He tried his best to ignore the annoyance and instead focused on his leaders obvious anger. She was pacing back and forth in their little camp out, her annoyance obviously increasing with every step. Elytta wasn't known for being patient, or calm. She, in fact, had to be the least patient slaver in history. Hits had been gone for four hours, saying he'd be back in two. Elytta lost her temper when her group couldn't get their asses ready to go on a raid in thirty seconds. He decided that she was going to explode at any moment, and calmly waited for the inevitable temper tantrum his leader was known for. He also foolishly scratched his nose.

"Ow, fuck!" Andy yelled out loud. Rachel ignored him and kept cleaning a pistol that Hits didn't find on her. She had also been observing Elytta's aggravated pacing and thought about how the red-head would act when Hits finally showed up. Rachel sighed and hoped that Elytta would't act too rashly. Rachel had an intuitive ability: she could look into a persons eyes and see what they were really about. It wasn't some unique power, everyone had it. It's just that not many people payed it too much attention. She could sense who other people _were_, how they were feeling. She knew enough that if Elytta acted up around the man too much, she might not come out of it looking the same. She shivered at what she felt coming off of Hits. Behind that carefree and smiling exterior lay something dark.

Jimmy surveyed the area from a large boulder. He just thought. He mentally kicked himself over and over again for getting himself into this situation. He thought about his mother, and how he promised to get her help. He thought about the suffering he caused, the people he'd enslaved, trying to reach that goal. He thought about the laughing and smiling man he'd met today, making jokes while holding a gun to a womans head. He chuckled a bit remembering the guy. He also had to shake off thought of darkness. He saw past Hits' mask too. He could almost feel the desire to blow Elyttas brains in. Well, maybe that was just his desire. Whatever. In any case, the groups reality had been shaken by one crazy ass bastard. They had never been surprised before. Not when that deathclaw attacked them, the one Andy finished off with his lucky knife. Not when they ran into a group of cannibal raiders.

This jostled the whole spectrum. They were sitting here, waiting for the orders from a guy that had hijacked their gear and threatened their leader. Jimmy thought to the moment when Hits was holding Elytta at gunpoint. He wanted to feel like that. He wanted to hold Elytta at gunpoint, but pull the trigger instead of giving orders. Jimmy decided it was time. If there was any day he would kill the witch, the evil that was Elytta, it was today.

**Outskirts of Big Town, on the road**

"Look!" shouted Shorty, his upraised hand and finger pointing towards the town. Red and Serah squinted, and saw ten mutants, one with a large rocket launcher, heading up the street towards the protected area of Big Town. "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" yelled Red. "They're gonna tear them to pieces! We gotta do something Serah!"

"What the hell can we do but hide? I only have one pistol! There are ten freaking mutants over there! We have to trust Hits will cme back okay? He said he would."

Serah watched the mutants as they huddled up and began grunting to each other.

Red angrily looked from them to Serah. "How can you trust him? You met him two hours ago! He probably just ran off to save his own skin."

Serah defiantly locked her eyes with Reds. "I don't know, why but I trust him. Okay? He _will _be back I know it."

Shorty looked from the mutants to the two woman. "Hey, I'm small enough to fit through the defense on the back side of town. Those slow mutants look like they're taking their time. I can warn the others." he offered.

Red looked at him in surprise. Shorty was always sensitive about his stature. To blurt it out, even to help, was unusual. She couldn't deny the fact that warning the others was a brilliant idea, but she couldn't help but worry a little. "Are you sure you'll be alright sneaking past them?" she asked and watched the mutants, making sure none turned around and spotted the trio. She also found it odd that the mutants were discussing any kind of assault plan, she thought they were all dumber than rocks. Maybe they weren't discussing an assault plan, probably just bragging about which one would kill the most humans or something.

"I'll be fine," Shorty confidently said with a thumbs up before running off towards the back of Big Town. He sprinted as fast as he could before crouching and sneaking around the mutants. Then he was out of sight behind a barricade.

**Big Town outskirts, with the slavers.**

"Alright everybody, let's move!" cried Hits as he ran into the rocky clearing. Everyone jumped at his voice, they didn't hear him walking up.

"And just what the hell have you been doing huh?" Elytta yelled as he unloaded a bunch of pistols from his pack and started handing them out. "We've been waiting here for two hours over the limit! I should FUCKING kill you!" she screamed before Hits brought the barrel of his own pistol to her forehead. "Would you mind quieting down?" he asked politely. "It's been a long four hours."

Elytta froze and glared at him. Then she pulled one of the pistols he was handing out out of his grasp and brought it to his forehead. "I dare you," she whispered, "to try and pull that trigger. I swear that my bullet will be in your brain first. Try me," she said. Hits' eyes widened, and a slow smile began to creep across his face. His eye twitched and Jimmy knew he had to act.

"Hey, that's our leader man and we have guns," Jimmy said calmly. "Let's not act rashly now, we can still get Red and do this transaction peacefully." He of course had no intention of capturing Red. Actually, anyone who tried to capture Red or get in his way of killing Elytta would end up dead themselves. He just hoped Hits wouldn't really try to capture the girl. He didn't want to fight Hits. He didn't really know why.

"Ok," Hits said cheerily. He lowered his barrel and turned away from Elytta. "That was tense. Whoah, whoah, okay guys," he said, realizing he was still on the clock, "we need to get to Big Town _fast. _I'll run ahead, you guys follow. There are only a few mutants left," he lied. He decided he'd use the slavers to finish off the last couple mutants, he didn't feel like fighting anymore. Little did he know that the mutants were already at the town and there were more than a couple of them.

"Hey!," Elytta shouted angrily,"don't turn your back on me!" she screamed.

Hits sprinted past her and headed off to Big Town.

**The players are in place, let's get this game started. Remember to review.**


	9. Yeah, we're fucked

**Really, really, really, really, really sorry I haven't updated in a while. Between school and the fact I got discouraged with my writing didn't help it at all. Oh, and I''ve been reading alot of first person POV books lately. I'm almost forgetting how to write in third person. **

**(Insert disclaimer here. Slavers, Serah and Hits are mine)  
**

Ocassionally there is that pivotal moment in a confrontation where you simply want to ram your fist as far into your enemies mouth as it can go. Many people find this reaction to be bad. you can't solve problems with violence, they'd say. Well, most people are pussies. They don't realize it is human nature to be violent. Millions of years ago, humans weren't frolicking around with flowers or hugging each other. They were braining each other with sticks and animal bones and whatnot. We can follow this violent behavior to the many wars that have happened throughout our history on Earth. Thousands of years ago we were slashing each other up with swords, and now we are piercing each other with bullets.

Now, it is true that violence isn't the only choice. Anybody would rather talk out any problems peacefully to get to an agreement that will leave both parties satisfied.

But the inner neanderthal will always be screaming at you to go Chuck Norris on the stupid fucks ass.

No matter what you do though, no matter how many baseball bats you crack over someones skull or how many fingers you break while street fighting, there is one fact that will always hold true. One great belief that everyone should be thinking about always, in any violent situation.

The innocent should _never _be harmed.

People who haven't done anything wrong. _No one_ should touch them. Not rape or steal or murder. You can't even throw a good punch in.

Because what goes around comes around. Tenfold. A thousand fold. You wouldn't believe the size of the hammer that comes down on the evil ones. And the moment of realization of how much trouble the wrongdoers have gotten themselves into, when they KNOW that they messed up...?

That's when you look them in the eye and say, "You are so fucked."

"Come on! Keep up!" Hits cried behind him at the straggling slavers. Elytta and her gang were having trouble keeping up with quick-footed man, but they could see the town on the rise ahead of them. They redoubled their efforts and sprinted even faster, taking care not to jostle their weapons too much. "Hey!" Jimmy shouted, "whats the plan?" Hits looked over his shoulder and unholstered his two pistols and said, "charge right into battle!" He laughed and ran up and over the rocky rise.

Elytta slowed down and looked at Rachel. "Have you noticed our temporary mercenary is insane?"

Rachel giggled and loaded her assault rifle. "Yep!" she said with a little grin and jogged up the hill. Elyyta stared dumbstruck at her friends changed attitude. Was the insane mercenarys disposition contagious or something? She growled in frustration and loaded her .44 Magnum. "Jimmy!" she called to the big man walking up the hill after the others, "I want you to kill Hits after the fighting is over, k?" Jimmy stopped and glanced over his shoulder at the red-head.

He smiled a little. "Whatever you say boss."

Elytta missed the deciet in Jimmys answer, she was too preoccupied thinking of the fortune she'd be getting for delivering Red. She had never gotten such a big fortune for one person, and she might finally be able to buy her way into the upper dealings of the slavers. She shivered in anticipation of being able to control an entire slaver camp. Elytta shook her thoughts away and smiled greedily as she continued up the slope. One more fight and she'd be able to get all of it.

She caught up with the slaver team as they reached the other side and froze in surprise.

"Wha....what the hell...?" Rachel whispered as they watched.

Hits was sprinting towards a group of ten mutants. All heavily armored and heavily armed. There was one behemoth marching from the other side of the settlement, seeming surprisingly docile as it calmy stomped towards Big Town. It was gigantic. It stood more than twenty feet tall and was covered in raw muscle. Each footstep shook the land around them. It had a necklace of skulls around its neck and wielded a fire hydrant as a weapon.

Hits saw the monstrosity and froze. He had only heard about super mutant behemoths, and he had hoped he would never have to actually fight one. Hits saw the behemoth look down to its left, and he followed its gaze to see Shorty trying to back away from it while tripping over debris. The behemoth growled, an ugly sound loud enough for everyone to cover their ears, and it reached down.

Hits sighed. There's a first time for everything. Even fighting a behemoth.

"HEEEEEEYYY!!!" he shouted, long and loud. He became the center of everyones attention.

Dusty, Kimba and everyone else in Big Town had gotten on top of the roof of one building and were building a defense when they heard him.

"Holy shit, is that Hits?" Dusty asked while trying to get a better view. Kimba and Bittercup looked over him to try and see themselves.

"Hey! That's Hits! Why the hell did he come back?! Can't he see how much shit we're up against?" he turned and asked Flash.

Flash shrugged. "Maybe he thinks he can be a hero? What a dumbass" he said and picked up a sandbag and adjusted it.

The super mutants grunted in confusion and turned to face the man.

"Looook brothersss...more hoo-mans!" one enthusiasticaly pointed out as he saw the slaver band and Hits. "HAHA! We kill many this day....and turn them..." it grunted again and lifted its rifle. The behemoth heard Hits too, and it ceased attempting to pick up Shorty who ran into Big Town as fast as he could.

Serah and Red were watching from behind a termite destroyed wooden wall. "Told you he'd be back," Serah said with a smug smirk and Red scowled in reply. She was secretly very relieved though. She knew he wouldn't abandon them, but she wasn't entirely sure he wasn't hurt or something. "Yeah, but look! He brought slavers see? I recognize that one." Red said and pointed at Elytta. "He probably doesn't know," Serah whispered,"he just went to get help, and he found them. Big deal." Red noticed all super mutant attention was on Hits and she got an idea. "Come on Serah," she said as she crouched and snuck off towards inner Big Town. "Wait! What are you doing?" Serah asked as she too got up and went after her. Red looked back and whispered, "we're getting everyone out before the super mutants get them! Come on!"

Hits was satisfied with everyones attention on him, and he decided to make sure the super mutants were adequately distracted. "All riight you fuck faces!" he yelled defiantly and twirled his pistols. "This here town ain't big enuff for the ...uhh...eleven of us! Especially fatty over there." he said and pointed out at the behemoth. Now the behemoth may be stupid, but it still knew it was being insulted when it was called "fatty". It roared and pounded its chest. Hits grinned manically and shouted, "you ten scuzzballs stay where you are! I'm going to take out tall, yellow and stinky."

The smaller super mutants stood there confused. Were they just commanded by a human?

"Huuughgh, hey? Did that human...tell us to not move...?" one asked.

"Me thinkers he said he fight Grog!" another surprised one pointed out.

"Hugh, hugh, hugh!" one chuckled, "I want watch! Puny human get squashered flats!!"

So the pathetically stupid super mutants stood and watched the proceedings instead of taking the perfect opportunity to attack Big Town.

They're super mutants, what did you expect?

"Elytta, I think Hits just challenged a behemoth..." Rachel whispered to the angry red head. She could barely move for fear of drawing the great monsters attention to her.

Elytta and her gang stood stunned, amazed at the sheer magnitude of the situation they had gotten themselves into. Then they blinked in realization.

"What did he just freaking do?!" Elytta cried.

"Are you serious?" Serah stopped and asked as she heard Hits proud challenge. Red and Serah had snuck across the bridge, but hearing Hits proclaim he'd take on a friggin' giant stopped them cold. "He's going to die! What an idiot!" Red said watching the man walk calmy towards the giant. "I'll say," came a voice from above them. Red and Serah looked up and saw Shorty and Kimba staring down at them from the roof they were on. "Need a hand?" Shorty asked with a grin. Red and Serah smiled and climbed on top of the house with the assistance of their friends.


	10. Die

_"Yeah, turns out those blasted vaults ended up being complete failures. Apparently almost everyone in them ended up dead or worse. Heh, heard one was turned into a damned ghoul **city** out west. Sure glad we stayed out here..."_

_-Journal excerpt found on skeletal remains._

Grog didn't like the fact that a smallish human thought that he could beat him. Being a surprisingly intelligent behemoth, he figured a challenge as outrageous as this meant there was some sort of trick involved. Of course, his suspicions vanished beneath blind rage when the human called him a "fatty", but it's still worth noting that Grog could have seen through Hits' deception. The behemoth roared, causing all present to cover their ears, and it charged towards the human.

The Big Town residents atop the house covered their eyes to avoid seeing the brave (or stupid) mans death but the expected _crunch_ of Hits being crushed never came. What did happen was chaos.

A bright flash of light blinded everyone. The slavers, who were already retreating to the ridge they had come over, stumbled haphazardly toward the general direction they were originally heading. The mutants growled in frustration and rubbed at their eyes. They had expected blood and guts, not blasted light! Grog had swung his fire hydrant hammer at Hits when the light exploded in his face. He, too, was completely blinded. Then he felt something on his arm.

"RAAAAGH, WHA?" it cried as it swatted it's arm where it felt the disturbance. Apparently it had missed, because the sensation had leapt to his other hand and was continuing up the opposite arm! Grog roared and flailed his arms wildly.

The Big Town residents (since they had closed their eyes) saw the whole thing when they opened them, unblinded.

When the great hammer had swung down upon Hits, the man had thrown some sort of device that exploded in brilliant light, and dodged out of the way. Rolling to the left of the descending hammer, he felt the earth around him vibrate with the sheer force of the monstrous weapons impact with the stony earth. Dust and debris flew up from under the hammer with a collossal crash. He hopped up right away and nimbly jumped atop the fire hydrant running up the torn pipe with alacritous balance. When the beast attempted to swat him down with its other hand, he simply spun away from the beasts elbow joint, and then leapt back onto the hand when it was in range. Hits focused, reached to his belt, and pulled off three grenades and threw them into the air next to the behemoths face as he dived off, not having time to activate the explosives. Midair, he deftly whipped out a single 10mm pistol and aimed.

And shot.

Grog didn't know what hit him.

Serah and the Big Town residents saw Hits fire in midair three times, hitting each one of the grenades. With each successive hit, another large chunk of the behemoths head was blown off in a cherry-red explosion. The concussive explosions were just close enough to affect him too, and he was blasted even faster toward the ground. He had time to see the damage he wrought before he hit the ground on his back, dizzying and disorienting him. He heard a loud "thump" nearby and could hear the echoing sounds of the super mutants and the slavers voices suddenly shouting and shots being fired. He smiled weakly and blacked out, the explosions and impact with the ground taking its toll.

_***FLASH***_

_"It's all a simple matter of time" the shadow said. "And if it were more complicated, I'm sure that we would find a logical solution to the problem. With the very same results."_

_"Don't forget that there is a time to be cautious about stuff like this" said another shadow, this one with a deeper voice, "we don't have any time to spare for catastrophic mistakes. We must move slowly."_

_The first shadow shrugged. "True enough I suppose. But enough about how cautious or not we must be." The first shadow turned and picked something up, presenting it to the second. _

_"I," it said with emphasis, "have got some serious results here. No doubt that you will like this alot."_

_The second shadow accepted the object and shuffled through it. Then it gasped._

_"The ionization portion is ready?" it hissed, with a trace of excitement and anxiety in its voice. _

_You could almost hear the first shadow smiling. "Yes."_

_"Then we have got ourselves the means to an end."_

_Both shadows turned toward Hits and approached him._

**_*FLASH*_**

_"Hyper. It is a word to suggest acceleration? There aren't many pre-war dictionaries left unburnt nowadays, but I'm pretty sure the word means something that is **more**__."_

_"Well we need a name to present to the board of directors. Besides, this little project of ours deserves a title. Hyper sounds...pretty cool actually. Let's put that in."_

_"Okay.." The sound of a computer keys being tapped. "Next?"_

_"Ionization. It's a big part of the project."_

_"Alright, and he's an android right? I think I've heard of that somewhere. They are human robots?"_

_"Well, first of all, I can't think of anything for the abbreviation for that. H.I.A..? It'd sound wierd. Second, we started out with human and gave him robot parts, no, no forgive me. The equipment we used is far too advanced to be insulted with the word robot." _

_"..."_

_"What?"_

_"You take this naming stuff very seriously, don't you?"_

Hits awoke to the sound of gunshots. He groaned and tried to raise his hands and rub the soreness out of his neck but he felt his hands pinned down. Groggily, he looked up and saw Red and some other dude crouching behind rotten boards and sandbags.

"Whats up?" Hits asked his voice hoarse and dry.

Red glanced at him before getting up and firing her pistol over their barricade. Hits heard shouting on the other side and several return-fire bullets buried themselves into the sandbags next to him. Hits rolled his eyes. Amateurs.

The other guy looked at him fiercely though, his eyes glowing with awe and appreciation.

"Hey, good to see you're awake. You really screwed up that behemoth man, damn. I'm Flash, nice tah meetcha."

Flash held out his hand.

Hits shrugged and asked Flash to take the bunch of fallen sandbags off his arms.

"Haha, oops. Lemme take care of that for you."

As Flash moved the sandbags, he explained to Hits what had happened after he passed out. The regular super mutants, after seeing their behemoth downed, got pissed and charged the humans, slaver and Big Towner alike. The Big Towners had gotten off the roof of the house they were on and had taken cover, but not before brave Shorty ran out into the middle of the warzone and dragged the unconscious Hits back to safety. The slavers also split, but to the other side of the street, taking cover behind a bunch of fallen telephone posts and crumbling ruins.

After the panicked rush, everybody had turned around and started firing at everything that moved. The supermutants were stupid enough to stand out in the open (Hits felt sorry he missed it) and were torn to shreds by the bullets coming from both sides. And then of course, a woman from the slavers side had yelled out a command to attack the Big Town residents (probably Elytta, thought Hits sourly). He had been out for about five minutes.

"Yeah, man. You recovered pretty quickly from three fucking grenades. You some kind of mutant yourself?" Flash asked with a smile.

"Oh yes," Hits said with plenty of sarcasm, "I am a super mutant in disguise and I am really here to eat your brains." Flash gave a half-hearted grin and threw himself to the ground as he noticed the slavers about to fire a concentrated volley. Hits sighed and tried to shake the pins-and-needles out of his hands.

"Thats ghouls you dork. Super mutants eat all of you." Flash grunted as he slowly picked himself up, just barely dodging the deadly discharge.

"Whatever, I'm through with this shit. Tell me where everyones positions are so I can figure out a way outta this mess."

"Well, Shorty and Pappy are right to our left, but I've had them hiding so that they can pop out and do a sort of sneak-attack. Timebomb, he's one of our buddies, you haven't met him yet. He got shot and is right next to Red." Flash pointed and Hits leaned over to see a young man breathing shallowly with blood all over him. Timebomb noticed him looking and gave him a small smile and a thumbs up. Hits smiled back. These kids had some kind of spirit.

Flash paused. "We have a girl in a position away from here, she can't do anything.

"Nothing at all."

Flash looked harshly at him. "Nothing."

"Dusty?"

"Uh, oh yeah, he's on the roof sniping with his hunting rifle. Too bad he can't shoot for shit. Otherwise the damn slavers would be super-dead."

Hits looked up and saw Dusty lying prone at a marvelous sniping position. Judging the distances and cover, he should have been able to hit all the slavers from where he was, and they couldn't hit him back. Hits sighed again. Too bad he couldn't shoot for shit.

Hits pulled out his pistols and saw that he was out of ammo, and he looked around for his bag. He found one lying by Timebombs leg just as Red crouched and fired (mmmm, nice ass Red) but he couldn't find the other one, with his ammo.

"Did Shorty grab my other bag?" Hits asked Flash.

Flash looked confused, then called over to Shorty.

"Shorty! You grab Hits' other pack dude?"

A forlorn call from behind some bushes.

"No."

Flash turned back to Hits and shrugged. The he called to Shorty and Pappy to do their "sneak-attack" which failed utterly.

Hits swore. But then he got another idea. He cracked his neck and tried to relax himself, then turned to Red.

"Why is it every beautiful day I begin to have is interrupted?" Hits asked the girl in the red jumpsuit.

The glass bottle on the shelf next to him exploded.

Red looked back at him, an incredulous expression on her face.

Hits frowned.

"I mean, I start out my day with a pleasant walk right? Wake up…and take a stroll, hunt a little yah know what I mean?" he asked her, looking annoyed.

The wooden plank next to him dissolved into splinters with a loud crack.

He looked at the remains with a bored expression and sighed. Red looked at it fearfully.

"They're getting closer Hits," she said, a slight tremor evident in her voice.

"Hey!" yelled Flash, "What the hell are we supposed to do? I can't peg these bastards from here with just a pistol!" he exclaimed angrily, and the yelped as a bullet buried itself into the sandbag behind him. "Damnit Hits! You were supposed to help us, not get us all killed!" he screamed. He poked his head up again, squeezed off two rounds and then ducked back behind cover.

"Don't freak out man, I'm on it." Hits yelled back. He understood Flash's sudden animosity, the slavers seemed to be concentrating on him now.

Then he turned around to continue his conversation.

"So I'm walking around right? The morning was not too hot, not too cold, just perfect."

He paused when another volley of bullets passed over.

"And then I see your town. What the hell was I thinking coming here? This is what I was thinking: Hey, a town! Maybe there are some hot girls! The Wasteland doesn't have many of those."

He paused again at the sound of a scream from the slavers and gave a thumbs up to the surprised Dusty, who managed to hit someone. Hits flipped a lock of his long black hair out of his eyes.

"So I walk into town and…well, I guess you know the story from there." He finished as Red looked up at him, annoyed he was still talking.

"Aren't you supposed to be killing them?!" she suddenly exploded. "Yes, I'm sorry we brought you into this mess, but you know we need your help."

She pleaded with him as her hands kept working on the wounded Timebomb. Hits frowned again.

"Fine, but you owe me." He said with a disgruntled air.

"We'll give you anything we want, that we have of course." She said turning back to heal Timebomb. "I'm holding you to that!" Hits said as his mood lightened up. Red and Bittercup were very attractive, he hoped Red would keep her word.

Cause I need to get laid, he thought.

He reached into his pack and pulled out three frag grenades, thought better of it, and put them back. He looked around. He was in the ruins of some old building and Red was crouching next to him. Currently, she was staunching the flowing blood from Timebombs abdomen. She said he was going to live, but Timebomb didn't look so good. To his left, Shorty and Pappy were doing the same as Flash. Otherwise known as being completely useless. Bittercup was safe and sound in a building away from combat, being a hindrance to the Bigtown dwellers survival. If she was out here, everyone would have to watch out for her, better she stay away.

He glanced outside again. He took it all in. The slavers locations were scattered about the random shacks in the vicinity.

One was stupid enough to be standing out in the open and firing. Or maybe he wasn't so stupid considering how shoddy the Big Town residents aiming were.

This is pointless, he thought.

"Flash! Pappy! Kimba! Shorty! Dusty! Cease fire!" he commanded.

They all looked at him with surprise and rebellion, but obeyed under his serious glare.

"Red" he said to her, "Once these guys are dead, you and Bittercup owe me some serious screwing." He said and grinned at her shocked and blushing features. He loved surprising people.

"Do you give up?" came a call from the other side of the battlefield. "Yeah!" Hits responded. "We'll give one of us up if you leave."

Everyone looked at him in disbelief. He couldn't be thinking about giving one of them up! "What are you doing?!" Red hissed at him looking pissed. Flash slowly lowered his pistol muzzle toward Hits. "If you're thinking about giving one of us up, then you've made a big mistake man." Flash whispered.

Hits just smiled.

"Yo!" he cried out again, "you want one of us or not?"

He didn't hear anything after that, but he knew they were thinking about it. "It's a pretty good deal considering!" Hits yelled again, "or we could just kill each other. Come on, we give you someone, then you go home happy."

Silence again, then, "Deal! Send your person out, unarmed!"

Hits looked at Flash, whose hands holding the pistol were visibly shaking. "Calm down Flash" Hits said, "All of you will be fine." He then stood up, dropped his pistol and pack, and walked out the door.

Elytta was dissapointed that her gang couldn't just kill Hits and take Red and his weapons stash, but she had seen the man kill a freaking behemoth. She frowned and told herself that they might need him. She wasn't scared of going up against the guy.

Hits strolled up to them like it was nobodies business and smiled. "Guys, what the hell? I was in the building you could've killed me."

Andy gave a half-hearted shrug. "Elytta said she didn't give a fuck if y-OW!" he cried when Rachel stepped on his foot.

She smiled at Hits as Andy hopped around swearing. "What he was about to say was that it was a dangerous situation and that we had to return fire, or die. We didn't have much choice."

Hits raised a brow in doubt. He knew Elytta wanted him dead.

"Whatever, I've got a new idea."

The slavers gave him their full attention, even Elytta.

"How about...we pack up and leave?"

They all looked stunned, then Elytta pulled a pistol and aimed it at Hits' face. "Why do you think we should do that?"

"Because slaving is wrong, and I don't care how many caps Red is worth. She's a good person who doesn't deserve it."

Elytta smiled. "Well, I DO care how many caps she's worth and I will kill you and get her, and sell her to Paradise Falls where she's likely to be raped by evil mercenaries day in and day out until she dies."

The slavers looked at her in horror.

She continued. "And when she had children from all those rapings, they will probably rape them too, especially if their female. Because you know what? These wasteland losers out here aren't fit to be called human like us. We have power, they don't.

Hits didn't say a thing.

"So we will exercise it. We will kill, and murder and rape and steal until this whole world burns down again. But you know what? We'll be having aot of fun before it happens."

Her speech had stunned her other party members. Sure they were in the business, but they had never seen or even heard about the things Elytta was talking about. In fact, Rachel thought, I haven't said an unkind word to a slave.

Jimmy glowered, he was furious. Andy shuddered at the images that came to mind from Elyttas words. All the others had no experience in the purely evil world Elytta talked about. All they did was capture slaves, and send them away. They had no idea of the suffering they went through.

Elytta watched Hits. "What do you say to that big man? And what do you say to the fact that you can't stop me either? Because you're about to die."

Jimmy began to pull out his pistol now was his chance. To his surprise, the others looked like they were going for their arms as well.

But he barely had his hand on the butt of his gun before they all heard a horrible ripping sound.

Streaks of blood flew out from Elytta's back and splattered everywhere, including the slavers. They cried out in suprise and looked at their leader. Soon to be former leader.

A single hand was protruding out of Elytta's back, and in that clenched fist was Elytta's still beating heart. Shards of cracked bone and spinal cord also found their way out of her back, protruding at odd angles away from the force that moved them: Hits' arm. Blood pooled at her feet, and the pool grew larger as rivers of blood ran down her back like a waterfall from hell.

The slavers looked on in horror.

"You meant those words, didn't you?" Hits snarled into Elytta's shocked features, his arm caught in Elytta's torso all the way to his bicep. "I couldn't believe someone as evil as you existed." Elytta's pistol fell out of her limp fingers. She was too slow to use it against him.

"It felt good to kill you." He grunted and ripped his arm out of her chest, resulting in a wet, sucking slap accompanied by the crunching of her bones being further distorted. She didn't even scream. He still held her fading heart.

"Die." He said simply.

He shoved her heart into her open mouth, wide in disbelief. She fell to the ground, an arm sized hole in her chest and her heart still beating between her teeth.


	11. Just Wait

_An auditorium. Filled with people, all dressed in business attire. They were all chatting, talking about the nuances and details of their work. Official things. Having a great time, a party while waiting for something. Above them was a fish tank, a massive ceiling of glass and water holding hundreds of thousands of gallons of water and their almost extinct inhabitants. The auditorium was located about 6 kilometers below ground, because this was the year 2252 and above them was an irradiated wastleland. The party-goers did not care for the world above them though. Not for their suffering, not for their harsh conditions. They only cared for purging it completely and remaking it to their own wishes._

_In this, Vault-Tec and the Enclave were partners. But Vault-Tec held only one goal, and that was to satisfy the wishes of a higher power: the Vault Tec Supreme Facility. _

_Somewhere in the world, deep beneath the surface of the Earth lay the central cog of the surviving company. Today, they were to witness another demonstration of something to further their leaders goals._

_Today, supposedly, was the day they could look to a future aboveground. _

_Suddenly, a tall man strolled from behind the curtain on the stage. He quickly stepped up to the very front of the stage and nervously faced the auditorium full of people expecting him to say something great, something wonderful. People were taking notice of his appearance, although the majority continued to to talk and laugh and in some cases sing. It was a real party._

_The tall man looked upon the crowd, seemed to mentally shake himself, and he put on a grand smile. He turned on the microphone and made sure there were no technical difficulties. God forbid something failed him today, he would have to be absolutely perfect. He glanced nervously at a far corner of the auditorium and saw a group of older men, in their fifties or sixties. All wore business suits, all wore no-nonsense grimaces. The board of directors._

_He pasted his smile back on, it was time for the show. _

_"Ladies and Gentleman of Vault-Tec. Good evening to you all, and welcome to the show!" he said with excitement and raised hands. _

_All attention was turned to him, but everyone was clapping and cheering. Drinks were raised, toasts were made. _

_"We have all been waiting for so long to return to the world above. The hostile environment Earth has become has prevented us from sharing in the stories our parents and grandparents told us."_

_The auditorium grew deathly quiet. Melancholy almost.  
_

_He went on in a soothing tone. "Of green trees packed together in lush forests, of open seas and cool winds. Of high mountains capped with snow!"_

_His last words captured the audience profoundly. Every one of them had a childlike fascination, a curiousity of snow. _

_He bathed in it. He had them eating out of his hands._

_"My name is James Mcarthy," he announced, "and I am proud to say that today, were are only two steps away from making our dreams come true!"_

_The audience erupted into a catastrophic explosion of sound. Such a small number was keeping them from the hopes and dreams their parents had given them, such a small number._

_"And it is all thanks to you of course!" James laughed, starting to clap, "with your help and support, your research and your hard work, we are ready to reap the rewards."_

_The crowd applauded some more. _

_"Now I am happy, ecstatic, elated to show you the first building block of our future." he made a gesture to the curtain behind him._

_In the back of the stage the red curtain was rolled up, revealing a large shadowed object, covered in massive cords and coils and machinery, all connecting, all powering **something**__._

_"I reveal to you the tool we will send out into the wasteland and retrieve the fabled G.E.C.K, which we know as a fact to be real. I reveal to you your hard work and your perseverance in its final form."_

_The crowd hushed down, anxiously waiting for him to get on with it._

_"I reveal to you," he said with much granduer, "the H.I.T.S Project!"_

_The lights in the back turned on revealing a monstrosity._

**Present Day**

Hits spit on Elyttas corpse and glared at the remaining gang of slavers. He then raised his bloody hand and clenched it threateningly.

"Anyone want to be next?" he growled. The slavers continued to stare in shock at the still-warm body in front of them. None of them dared to move too quickly as they switched their gaze to the man in front of them and shook their heads in the negative.

Hits was still mad. "I don't want to kill anyone else if I don't have to. So, please tell me that you weren't apart of her world."

The slavers just eyed his bloody fist and Elyttas body.

"I know a little something about slaver organization. How the collectors have nothing to do with treatment of slaves. I'm giving you a chance to live."

They couldn´t understand him very well, the slavers were still disoriented from the speed and brutality of Elyttas death.

Hits got bored waiting.

Faster than anyone can think, Hits had jumped in front of Jimmy and grabbed his collar, lifting him into the air and slamming him against a rotten wall!

"TELL ME NOW!" Hits screamed into his face.

"FINE!" Jimmy yelled right back, Hits' sudden action surprising him into sensibility again, "If you hadn't pulled your gory bullshit right there, I would've popped her myself." he managed to say clearly despite being choked.

Hits glared at him, a little surprised at his answer.

"I swear I would've killed her. She's been a shit-stain on our asses for too long. And I didn't even know about the shit she was talking about."

Jimmy decided to glare right back at the dangerous man, daring Hits to kill him. It got tense, the other slavers fearfully watching them stare each other down.

Hits looked into Jimmys eyes. He growled, and dropped the man. Jimmy stared up from the ground at Hits as he turned away.

"Same goes for everyone here, man. All we did, ever, was collect and return. We had no idea what happened afterward."

Hits sighed and glanced at the fresh corpse.

"And her?"

"She was assigned to our gang a couple months ago. Team leader. Happened when the call went out for Red, she got real excited. Wanted to be assigned a team for herself, and we were the lucky ones." Jimmy groaned as he stood up from the dirt, and dusted himself off.

"I swear he´s telling the truth" Rachel hesitantly offered. She stepped forward and offered her gun to Hits. "If you don´t want to believe us take my gun and kill me now" she said confidently now, with conviction. Hits watched as the slave collectors stepped forward and dropped their weapons, all afraid, all confident.

Hits sighed again and gave them all a sideways glance. They were certainly unlike the greedy scum he had come across in the wastes. They seemed more like...vaguely...good people?

"I'm not going to kill any of you." Hits stated fiercely. He had a better idea. "You!" he pointed at the man he had thrown up against a wall, "what's you name and why are you a slaver?"

Jimmy gave a small smile and stood straight proudly. "My name is Jemmerick Wiles. Friends call me Jimmy. My mother was sick at Rivet City and I didn't have enough caps to pay for her hospital bill. It disgusted me, but I had to go into the slaving business. For her." Hits nodded in respect and glared at the girl who had spoken up. She too smiled and declared with a cheeky grin, "Rachel Yahnday, Mr. Hits sir! I was a freshly captured slave myself before I managed to kill a slaver recruit and take her place. Of course, after that I had to keep up the ruse or else those assholes would probably figure out where their escaped slave got to. Didn't even recognize me when I put on my fancy new leather clothes!" she finished with a wink.

Hits smiled and repeated his mini-interrogation with the rest of the gang. There was the other Jimmy, who was kicked out of home when he was twelve because he was interested more in pre-war computers instead of the families business in trying to sell mole-rat meat. "Got an uncle, Ryan Briggs," Jimmy commented, "asshole literally would drag me to his mole-rat sites to help him with his crazy experiments." Jimmy had nowhere else to go, and ended up making caps slaving.

There was Ralph Moyers who was wounded out on the wastes by a deathclaw and nursed back to health by a gang of collectors. "They were impressed I survived the attack, and told me to join their troupe, or become a slave myself. So I played the part and punched the man square in the face and told him they could try and make me NOT join their gang and I'd kill them all. These idiots are all impressed by a show of force."

Next was the man with the broken nose, Andy Detler, who made a bet with a bunch of friends that he could make himself look like enough of a badass that the slavers would let him join. "I was drunk, and poor. But convincing. The only problem was you couldn't change your mind and back out. They're like a freaking cult."

Hits just rubbed the bridge of his nose in disappointment of humanity and told Andy he was a dumbass.

"Shit, I know!" Andy relented, "But I'm a dumbass who finished off that deathclaw, am I right guys?" he shouted and fished around for a high five. Nobody gave him one and he pouted for a bit.

"Wow, well all of you sound like you had some pretty crazy stories in which you're all the victims" Hits said with doubt. "How the hell did you find yourself in the same group?"

Rachel spoke up again. "Well, we all met at Paradise Falls when we pretty much saw through each others disguises. It was the little things normal people would do that the slavers wouldn't you know? Like, glasses Jim pulled my chair out for me when I went to sit down, and Ralph picked up the tab for Andy when he was a few caps short at the bar. We all noticed and we got to talking."

Hits didn't like trusting people too much. The screwed up crap he'd seen in the wasteland thus far was evidence enough that good morals were dead or dying. But the events of the day got to him. As he stood there with his arms folded and a frown creasing his face, he decided he was going to take a shot at his little idea.

"Okay lady and gents, I'm still not convinced that I should let you all go. But I have been somewhat...persuaded." he said with a hint of mystery. He walked past them and pointed off vaguely to the west. "About half a mile from here you'll find a cluster of boulders that form a kind of triangle shape. All your weapons are stashed there. You may go collect them." he said as he nodded at them to pick up their dropped weapons. The slavers breathed sighs of relief and pocketed their small arms from the dirt.

"But I want you to wait there for me. I have some business to take care of here, then I'm coming back. If you're still there, hey, I'll trust you a bit more and we get to have another chat. If you truly want to get out of the slaving business like you say, you will wait for me."

He nodded at them to leave. They all nodded back, an understanding between the six of them. The collector team set off over the gravel hill, into the sunset to collect their weapons.

Hits watched as the last collectors silhouette fell behind the rise, then turned around and walked past Elyttas body. He passed the fallen telephone pole where the slavers took cover, and he stooped by the ancient road to collect his other bag of tricks where it fell next to the body of the behemoth he mutilated. Slinging the bag over his shoulder, he cursed as he almost slipped in a puddle of blood. He strolled over to where the Big Towners were, grinding his left boot heel into the dirt with each step trying to get the blood off of it.

"Hits? That you man?" called Flash from behind a old door.

"Yeah, it's me. Hey I have to talk to you guys, can you all come out here?" he called back as he dropped his pack and sat on the ground with a grunt. Felt nice to be off his legs.

The Big Towners filed cautiously out of the building, leering around and making sure there weren't any more threats before letting down their guard. Flash, Dusty, Kimba, Red, Shorty, the recovered Timebomb, Pappy and Bittercup (called back from the house she was hiding in) lined up and looked inquisitively at Hits.

He sighed. "Red, remember the conversation I struck up when we were being shot at?"

Red nodded. "Yeah, I was wondering why you were trying to talk at such a bad time.."

"Well," Hits interrupted, "I told you everything I went through today because it was all untrue. I haven't been honest with you guys."

He paused and watched their reactions. They looked a little surprised, but that was it.

He continued, "To tell you the truth, today I met a bunch of slavers looking for you, Red. When they told me how many caps you were worth I decided to help them out."

Now shock and rage crossed all of their faces. Dusty looked like he was about to shout but Hits raised his hand to signal for him to wait.

"I busted you out of the super mutant stronghold and then took on a behemoth. I felt I had really earned the money. But when it got to a point where I could have kidnapped you and handed you over, I realized what I was doing. That shits not me. Alright? I had a moment of weakness, and then I grew out of it."

He snapped his fingers, a sound that echoed through the dark empty streets.

"Like that."

He paused again, but this time they waited for him to continue on their own, looking significantly less peeved.

"So I walked out to meet with my 'partners' and I told them they could fuck off. The leader didn't like that."

He raised his fist with drying blood all over it and showed it to them.

"I took care of that problem. You guys have nothing more to worry about. And you, Red, will soon have absolutely nothing more to worry about. I'm working up a bit of an idea for the slavers at Paradise Falls." he finished with an evil smile. The others smiled in return, remembering their hate for the monsters at the old car dealership.

"All I want to say now is that I'm sorry. You can hate me if you want, I won't blame you." he said sheepishly, and hung his head in surrender.

It was quiet for a moment, and Hits hoped they forgave him.

Then, "Are you KIDDING?!"

Hits looked up and saw Shorty step forward.

"You took out a fucking behemoth! You blew up the Germantown headquarters, AND you said fuck you to a bunch of slavers and lived."

Shorty held his hand out and smiled. "Dude, you're a crazyass bastard I want on MY side. Get the fuck up of the ground, it doesn't deserve to have your ass on it."

"Of course I forgive you. Shit, I all but love you after what you've done for us." Red said with a wink as Hits took Shortys hand and was hoisted back onto his feet.

"You're the man, man. I only hope you'll stick around for a bit," Flash shot in.

Bittercup hopped up close to Hits and looked up at him with big adoring eyes. "You wouldn't happen to have a girlfriend or anything would you?"

Hits winked at her as Pappy chimed in, "Have to say I doubted you at first. Doesn't matter what you started out doing, what matters is what ended up happening. You're alright by me." Hits looked over to Dusty and he gave Hits a smile and a thumbs up. Hits took a moment to realize just how much this moment of acceptance, of forgiveness hit him. When was the last time he felt this happy? When was the last time he was surrounded by this many people who actually _liked _him. He was speechless for a bit as everyone recounted the events of the day with much exaggeration and funny explosion sounds.

Then he realized something. "Where is Serah?" he asked suddenly.

Everyone stopped talking and spun to face him.

Flash was the first to say something, "actually, I haven't seen her since after you killed the behemoth."

"In all the action I figured she had found a vantage point and was shooting at the slavers like the rest of us."

Hits got frustrated with how much they didn't know. "Where was she the last time you saw her?!"

Red told him to follow her to the back of the building and pointed up to the roof. "She was up there with us in the corner. She was at the edge, she stayed put after we helped her up."

Hits looked around and inspected the area. He examined the earth and almost threw up.

He stooped low and picked something up.

"What's that?" Red asked. "A nailboard," said Hits hollowly, "ancient cedar."

Red froze. Then relaxed. "Don't worry, it's just from the side of the building. These houses are crumbling, there's always debris-"

"NO!" screamed Hits and he shot up and clenched the nailboard tightly, splintering it where his fingers dug in. "Look, the wood on the board is lighter than the house. This came from somewhere else." Hits choked on his words and crushed the nailboard completely under his grip. Red gasped and watched as the man slowly stood up, quivering with rage. He faced her and she almost fainted.

His eyes were tinged with a glowing bright green.

"I'll be back," he snarled, his voice dripping with malice. Then he sprinted off into the growing darkness.

He hoped he wouldn't find a nightmare.


	12. End

**Last chapter for this story. I'll write more with Hits, don't worry. Please review.**

**Lyrics are Dead Memories by Slipknot, its theirs blah blah blah**

_Sitting in the dark, I can't forget.  
Even now, I realize the time I'll never get  
Another story of the bitter pills of fate  
I can't go back again  
I can't go back again  
But you asked me to love you, and I did.  
Traded my emotions for a contract to commit  
And when I got away, I only got so far  
The other me is dead  
I hear his voice inside my head  
And we were never alive  
And we won't be born again  
But I'll never survive_

__

With dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart

You told me to love you, and I did.  
Tied my soul into a knot and got me to submit  
So when I got away, I only kept my scars  
The other me is gone  
Now I don't know where I belong  
And we were never alive  
And we won't be born again  
But I'll never survive

_With dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead visions in your name  
Dead fingers in my veins  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart  
Dead memories in my heart_

_-Vault-Tec Archived music. (Hits favorite song)_

"No, no, no, no, no,"Hits whispered between gritted teeth as he ran. He followed the scent of the super mutant. It had taken Serah, the innocent girl he had saved. Probably was going to do _horrible _things to her. He knew they didn't eat people, but he also knew that the super mutants captured victims were never seen again. He almost quivered in fear of what he might find. Or not find, in that sense. He followed the scent of the mutant.

It had been a while since she was taken apparently. They could have gotten as far as maybe two miles in the time he had taken to talk to the slavers, kill Elytta, and then talk to his new friends. Two miles...a super mutant stronghold could have been anywhere within a half a mile distance. He roared in outrage and sprinted harder. Now his steps seemed to dig into the earth, and leave imprints of cracked ground behind every step.

He followed the scent of that fucking mutant.

The new night sky was thick, and it cast its veil of black over the land. As Hits rushed by he could only make out rough silhouettes of boulders zipping past him. Then he saw movement.

"Die!" he screamed as he leapt upon the back of an unsuspecting mutant guard and rammed his fist into the back of its head, shattering its skull. The back of its damn head caved in. Blood and brains peppered Hits arms and face as the brutes body pitched forward with him on its back but he hardly noticed. He had arrived. He pulled out a small, roundish gun from his pack, pointed it up to the sky and fired. A blinding beam of light shot out and withered away as the very end of it became a bright beacon, littering the landscape in flashing blue luminescence. Surprised mutants blinked and looked up, wondering what the hell _that _was.

"You. Sons. Of. BITCHES!" Hits roared, drawing their attention from where they were loitering around their outpost of bent, painted steel and wire fences. "How many of you are there?" he asked, more to himself, and he counted. They began their attack with bullets, and the ones without guns began to run towards him, but even through the chaos he could spot them all.

"Twelve." he said as the light above them winked out, blinding the super mutants to the sudden darkness.

"Where he go?" asked one of the chargers, trying to blink the disorientation from his eyes. "Don't talk, you give away position or somethins," said the one next to it, trying to do the same thing.

Then its arm was pulled to the side, and snapped in half at the elbow.

"AAAAARGHGG!!" it screamed in agony.

"Hey, can you give me a hand?" it heard a sinister voice ask politely.

Right before his dangling forearm was twisted where it was broken, its skin twirled around it like a piece of taffy a kid played with. Then it was ripped clean off.

The mutant couldn't even scream, its shock was so great. It writhed on the ground, soon to die from blood loss.

Its partner backed away from where it heard its buddy scream. It tried to make out something besides the other mutant dying on the ground, but it couldn't see.

"Wha?" it asked when it felt a tap on its shoulder. It was struck in the gut with its buddies torn arm and as it doubled over in pain a 10 mm bullet buried itself into the back of its skull with a small bang.

Hits threw the arm over beside the main mutant force where it landed with a thump. A sound large enough to draw the mutants attention away from where he had fired his pistol.

"Ten." he breathed.

The next mutant felt like a sledgehammer hit the small of its back and drilled in. It tried to scream, but it choked on the sound as it felt the invading force grip its spine.

It died horribly. The other mutants heard a snapping, wet sound from right behind them and turned around in time to see their brother fall.

The closest two took three bullets each to the face. The next one raised its rifle to fire where it had seen the flashes of the two pistols, but its rifle barrel was grabbed and shoved into it nose perfectly, breaking the still-human cartilage and sending the bone shard into its brain. Killing it instantly.

"Eight." they heard from behind them. A grenade was rolled into the middle of their group as they spun around again.

Four of them were ripped apart from the shrapnel. The other four survived because their buddies were in the way, but they were still staggered by the explosion. "Kill him!" the leader cried and pointed to where the grenade came from.

Its throat was ripped out. It clutched the hollow where its adams apple used to be. Its blood ran down its oversized arms as it gargled and attempted to ask for help. It slowly looked over to its brothers, its vision fading. But it could see what was happening. So much blood. _Not human,_ it thought as it blacked out, _monster._

Hits finished off the last mutant as it pleaded for mercy. Then he walked up to the outpost. He stepped past the bent and broken steel covered in blood and he looked around. And he almost cried.

There Serah was, all tied up and looking alert.

When she saw him, her eyes lit up and she smiled. "Bout time you showed up. Whatcha been-" she gasped as she saw his appearance.

Hits tried to walk forward confidently. He wanted to tell her everything was over. But he could only stagger and grip the steel he was leaning against.

"Hits? Hits? Are you...okay? Are....ou....kay...?" sound dissolved into a dim whistling and his vision swam. He closed his eyes and slid down the steel beam, sitting on the ground. e opened his eyes one last time to see Serah struggling to get out of her bonds. Then he closed his eyes again and knew no more.

**Tec-37. 2252**

_The crowd gasped in shock and fear. The light revealed a pod in it containing...what looked like the things called "ghouls" from scouting reports. But this one was..worse. Horrible radiation burns covered its whole body, and the cords on the outside of the pod connected to it in painful, evil-looking syringes and probes. It looked like hell. The crowd murmured amongst themselves, glancing to the monster now and then. James was confused. Their reaction was negative? Sure it **looked** bad, but they should be happy. They could soon go to the surface!_

_"Ladies and gentleman, the H.I.T.S project was not meant to look pretty," he stammered, but coughed and resumed his previous demeanor. "H.I.T.S stands for Hyper Ionized Tesseract Sentient project. This is a being that can use stored radiation as energy, fueling its movement, quickening its thoughts. It can jump higher, run faster, get stronger, even heal itself **and **others radiation. Instead of succumbing to the radiation above it can use it as a tool to find the G.E.C.K."_

_He was about to go more into the science behind the project before a girl in her late teens stood on the central table of the auditorium._

_"I've got a question for you Mr. Mcarthy!" she screamed. All eyes turned to her. The younger members of Vault-Tec weren't allowed at this convention._

_James grimaced. It was her._

_Tears ran down her face as she worked up her words. She breathed in deeply, tried to calm herself. "Where," she cried, "is your son, Mr. Mcarthy?"_

_James froze. The audience froze. Even the cold-hearted board of directors froze. James son hadn't been seen in a while._

_James shook off his initial shock and called security to get her down and escort her out of the premises. As they made their way to her, she screamed louder, "Where is Calvin?!"_

_She was openly crying now but her face was crossed with rage. The crowd eyed her, James, and the pod. Then they drew a horrible conclusion. _

_"Oh my GOD!" a woman screamed as she pointed to the pod. _

_The creature inside had opened its eyes. It watched as the security guards arrived at the table. _

_It watched as the crowd was riled up, some fighting the guards now. And as the board of directors calmly stood up and filed out of the exit in the back of the room, unnoticed by all but it. _

_It watched as the young woman was grabbed kicking and screaming, still yelling at James for what he had done._

_It watched as James, disappointed at the crowds reaction, turned to the science team behind the curtains and told them to discreetly pack up and change location. They needed to launch the project without interference. _

_James left the area, out a side door on the stage, followed by a mousy man with round glasses. Then it saw something._

_Something it didn't understand, but something that made it pissed. A guard had struck the young woman square across the face, to silence her._

_"NO!" it screamed in its mind, and it began to shake, and writhe and tear at its bonds. It wrenched one arm away from the evil syringes, and lances of pain shot up its nerves. It didn't care!_

_It wrenched its head from the device holding it still and felt its collarbone snap at the strain. It didn't fucking care._

_It headbutt the glass in front of it sending a spiderweb of cracks running up and down and left and right. It headbutt again, then it punched and clawed, its movements jerky and spasmic. It screamed for real this time, bubbles of air erupting from its mouth as the breathing contraption was spit out. _

_The science team took notice of its aggravated activity as they were trying to pack up the pod into a temporary portable charger. They were panicked, it wasn't even supposed to be awake. They didn't know what to do._

_The creature inside swung its body to one side of the pod, tilting the machine and then slamming it down, tilting it the opposite way. A single large cord was ripped free, air and water spinning out of it as it flew around like an uncontrolled water hose at full power. The crowd noticed this. And they panicked. They fought to get away from the stage, a mass of people pushing past each other to escape. _

_The cord swung straight up, and hit the ceiling. A dreadful crack was heard, and for a moment there was deathly silence as the crowd stopped and looked up. Then Hell broke loose. _

_The ceiling shattered above them, so strong was the force of the cord. Thankfully, only the large section of ceiling in front of the stage broke, but it was enough. A cascading waterfall followed the broken glass, and it began to flood the auditorium. The people closest were swept away in a large wave, and they collided with the ones who were further. The guards at this point were ignoring the unconscious girl on the table, and were trying to get away, but they, too, were swept away in the flood. The wooden table floated._

_The water pushed the crowd into the walls and the doors, with the doors giving way and allowing the force of the water to pass. Many people were dragged down the hallways, and slammed against corners as the waves made their way as far as they could go._

_The creature didn't care. With one final punch, it shattered the glass and it jumped out of the pod as water tried to drag him down with it. It leaped impossibly far, and landed on the wooden table that floated aimlessly, bouncing against the doorway it could not pass through. The current created by the waterfall had emptied the auditorium of people, sweeping them all through the doors and out through to their living corners. Like a free wet ride home. The scientists had panicked and fled, following James out the door. It was alone, with her. It bent close and sniffed, somehow recognizing the smell. It eyed her beautiful face, searching to recognize, it couldn't understand why. She was alive, and not in danger. It slowly moved her hair out of her face with one burned finger, and longed to stay more and watch her. But it had to go._

_So it left. Bounding through the flooded hallways, somehow knowing which way to go even though it didn't remember being there before. It broke through a locked door and sprinted on all fours through the facility before remembering something about using two legs. It sprinted normally._

_At the exit to the facility, it found one scientist woman sitting on the floor and crying. the wave had hit here, water was dripping from the ceiling, and areas were covered in darkness because of the screwed up electrical lines._

_She heard a noise and looked up. She saw a dark figure standing there, watching her. _

_"Please..p-please don't hurt me, I swear it wasn't my fault!"_

_"Shut. Up." came the reply from the dark figure. It was drenched, water dripping noisily on the cold cement ground._

_The woman looked up at it, fear evident in her eyes._

_"Please, I'll tell you whatever you want just don't hurt me..."_

_"I'm not making promises," it hissed, it's voice sliding through her mind like a blade through a bloody carcass._

_She whimpered, and tried to crawl away backwards from it._

_Then it stepped into the small hovering light._

_"AAAAAAAAAAAEIIIIII!!!" she screamed and then it reached down and grasped her throat, and firmly clenched it, ending the annoying, grating noise._

_Her eyes widened. She couldn't tear her sight away from the abomination in front of her._

_It slowly lifted her up, her eyes now level with its own._

_Then it softened its grip._

_"Tell me where he is or I'll kill you."_

_She told him._

_He dropped her and left._

_She crawled into a corner and quivered in fear, crying softly._

_It ran through the rain until it got tired. _

_Then it __trudged through the rain, it's cold bare feet stamping its dark imprint in the mud. The rain fell in sheets, ice cold and irradiated. It paid the weather no heed and continued its pace. It's mind, twisted and corrupted it was, began to wander. It wondered about the pain it felt. Yes, the pain. Where had that come from? It had come from the room. It hated the room. How did he get to the room? Then it thought of them. It hissed in anger. And then in pain. So many times. So many times it should have seen what they would do. To..to...him. Him, yes. Him, it, her, he, she, them, wire, wire, pain, light, mother, father, red, blue, green, black, father....father..them...they? The pain dulled for a moment and the memories pierced him like lances. He was...a project. That's what they said. A project. Hyper...introspective...project? It...he...did not know. He stumbled and fell crouched on one leg. His hands planted in the wet earth like a brand dug into skin. He lifted one muddy hand up and examined it. Strange. Minutes ago it was burned, irradiated to an extent his...creators would deem dangerous. Now it seemed...fixed. Normal? Where did that word come from? What was normal? He raised his head, and through his healing eyes he could see the giant cement block. A stronghold. Soon to be a mausoleum. He recognized shapes above the door._

_"Vault-Tec," he hissed. Then the memories faded. All but the memories of the pain. All but the memories of them. And then all there was the color red. Red._

_Blood._

_He stood and walked slowly and painfully towards the new steel door ahead of him._

**Present**

"Ugh," Hits groaned and opened his eyes. He blinked. Then he opened his eyes again. Then he rolled over, grabbed the concerned-looking Serah around the waist and pulled her down to the cot he was laying in.

She yelped in surprise as she plopped down onto the bed, and then laughed as he pulled her close, threw his arms around her (think spooning) and closed his eyes again, nestling his nose in her hair (now very clean).

"We just met and you want to sleep with me already," she giggled and and relaxed.

"Sleeping does not necessarily mean 'screw like bunnies' Serah," he murmured tiredly. "That comes later," he said with a smile and he hugged her tighter.

She rolled her eyes. "So you mean you just want a pillow, huh?"

"Yes," he said, "a yummy girl pillow who's warm and comfy and has boobies."

She giggled and elbowed him.

"How long have I been out?" he asked her.

"A day, give or take. I managed to get out of those ropes and get some help to bring you back here. You're heavy, you know that?"

"Yeah."

"And you were covered in blood. When we got back Bittercup and Red volunteered to give you a bath."

"Lol," Hits said with a grin, confusing Serah. "Nevermind," he sighed.

"Well, they didn't get to. I did," she finished with a sneaky smile.

Hits looked at her as she turned to face him. "That'll be thirty caps," he said.

She elbowed him again.

"Have fun?" he asked her, watching the blush creep across her cheeks. She just smiled sheepishly and buried her face into the crook of his neck.

Finally, "yes."

Hits almost burst out laughing right there. Instead he hugged her and closed his eyes. "Well," he said before falling asleep, "I'm tired but you can definitely look forward to having more fun later."

Serah pressed herself closer to him and fell asleep as well.

* * *

"Alright, who waited up?" Hits called as he crossed the ridge. Serah followed behind him being sure to not stress her crotch to hard. She was a little sore.

Hits smiled and approved of the sight that met him. All the ex-slavers were lounging around, waiting for his arrival. At his call, they all answered with various "mes!" and "heres".

"Alright, I'm glad to say you all passed the test. I trust all of you that much more now."

Andy raised his hand as Hits and Serah took a seat on a boulder and watched them. "Andy, you don't have to freaking raise you hand." Hits scolded.

Andy lowered his hand. "What would've happened if we 'failed' the test?"

"Well," Hits started, "I probably would have had to hunt anyone who left down and killed them. Just be glad you passed, okay?" he said and smiled evilly at the look of fear that shot across Andys features.

"Now, I've got an idea. For all of you." Hits announced, gesturing the ex-slavers group to come closer.

"Firstly, do any of you guys have any cool ideas for names for a team of mercenaries patrolling the wastes? Not the Regulators, we're going to be a little bit more greedy than them. And nothing with bird innuendos, I hate those Talon guys."

As they all started coming up with names, Hits stopped them.

"Wait, wait, one more thing. What do you guys know about the defenses of Paradise Falls?"

**Well, that's my first story. Done. Completo. Finishado. Review, review, review. ALL of you. Please.**

**And to those who have reviewed, I thank you all for the support. All of your comments made me feel are warm and fuzzy inside, and really helped motivate me to write more. **

**Hits isn't done. What's next? Paradise Falls. I'll make it even better.**

**-mythicdawn12**


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